The Baby-Sitters Club 10 year Reunion!
by MissHWrites
Summary: The girls are all grown up and living separate lives and living on opposite coasts but unbeknownst to them, it's been 10 years since they all graduated from Stoneybrook High School and a reunion is in the works! With their busy lives, can all the baby sitters find the time to return to Stoneybrook for the celebration?
1. Chapter 1

~While the series ended in 1999, this fanfic story takes place in modern day 2017.~

The Baby-Sitters Club was a successful babysitting business run by seven local teenagers that the whole town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut relied on for many years. One phone call always guaranteed a responsible babysitter and put the parents of Stoneybrook at ease. The club started when all the girls were 12 and in the 7th grade and ran up until the girls were in the 11th grade and all 17. With busier schedules, homework, social lives, boyfriends, cars and preparing for college, they just didn't have the time for their club meetings or babysitting anymore and mutually agreed it was time to move on. The club was taken over by Karen Brewer and Vanessa Pike, with a few of their friends joining before completely disbanding two years later.

While the BSC was no more, the close friendship between the 4 original club members Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey never faltered. As they grew up, graduated and went their separate ways to college, none of them forgot the fun they had in The Baby-Sitters Club or with each other.

Best friends Kristy Thomas and Mary Anne Spier both went to the University of Stoneybrook and roomed together all through college. Kristy was awarded a softball scholarship and also studied business management. For years, she was the star pitcher for the girl's softball team and had a promising athletic future ahead of her until she separated her shoulder during the first pitch of the first game of junior year. Kristy was devastated she would have to sit out the entire season and go to physical therapy but her recovery also gave her a chance to work on her studies and she realized she needed to focus on academics and business as she would no longer be able to pitch like she used to and sports were no longer in her future so reluctantly and very emotionally, she quit the softball team. After junior year, she completed a summer internship in the mailroom at SBC Insurance in downtown Stoneybrook and did such a great job, they offered her a position when she graduated the next year. While insurance wasn't her dream, nor was being a file clerk with a college degree, Kristy figured any job was better than no job and she accepted. She worked very hard and eventually got promoted and transferred to the Human Resources department as an administrative assistant but her organized ways and leadership skills wouldn't keep her in that lower level position for long and at the ripe age of 28, she is now the HR manager. With her friends and family supporting her, she also came out as a lesbian in college and while she has had relationships with women in the past, she is happily single, with her career currently being her only love. She has ditched her tomboy ways and is now a sleek, polished and professional career woman. She makes a lot of money, drives a snazzy BMW and she lives alone in a luxury high rise apartment building downtown that is close to work. She is still down to earth and appreciative of all that she has, but still very proud of her success and of being a self made woman, not having to take a penny from her wealthy stepfather, Watson. She is still very close to her siblings and step family and remains best friends with Mary Anne, who she sees regularly. Still, she hasn't given up on her favorite hobbies and still babysits. She loves looking after her brother Sam's two boys and Charlie's little girl and every Saturday morning, goes to Stoneybrook Park to play on an adult softball league..just for fun!

Mary Anne majored in English, with the goal of being an elementary school teacher but like Kristy, life had other plans. To earn some extra money and to gain work experience, she took a job in the university library and found she enjoyed the atmosphere, the quiet and calmness of the library and sharing her love of reading and education with others and decided to make that her life's work. She graduated at age 22 and received her masters degree in library science at age 25. She continues to work in the library at Stoneybrook U as head librarian and loves encouraging young college students to still enjoy paper books and reading, despite the age of internet, e-readers and youtube. She and Logan broke up in the 9th grade and his family moved back to Kentucky the next year. She hasn't seen or spoken with him since. Mary Anne recently got married to Jackson Carnahan, whom she met through Kristy, as he also works for SBC Insurance as an insurance agent. While they used to work in the same department together and are very good friends, after her promotions he no longer works with her, nor does he even see much of Kristy on a day to day basis, making it less awkward that he is now Mary Anne's husband. Mary Anne and Jackson bought a fixer upper home in her beloved Stoneybrook and are in the process of remodeling and fixing it up. They both want kids eventually but are enjoying newlywed life at the moment and turning their broken up house into something spectacular. Richard and Sharon Spier are still married and he still practices law but is looking forward to retiring in the next few years. Mary Anne is very close with both of them as well as her step- sister in California and former BSC member, Dawn Schaefer.

Dawn Schaefer never left California. Despite the rocky start, she eventually grew very close to Carol, the stepmother she once hated and ended up going to work for her at her interior design business, Schaefer Interiors as a receptionist immediately after graduating Palo City High School. She proved herself to Carol and was eventually promoted to the office manager. Still, she felt a little inadequate without a college education even though she didn't really need one and decided to enroll in night classes at the local community college studying office management and interior decorating and design. She never earned a degree but received certifications in both fields and with her newly aquire education and knowledge, became Carol's right hand, assisting her with her jobs. Dawn gained a lot of experience and eventually bought into the company and became business partners with Carol, changing the name of the company to C & D Designs and business in sunny and expensive southern California is booming! Dawn has been married to Dr. Ben Weiss, who she met at a coffee shop, for the past 3 years. Sunny Winslow and Mary Ann Spier served as co-maids of honor with various other California friends of hers serving as bridesmaids and Kristy, Claudia and Stacey were all in attendance! Dawn and Ben are both 28 and expecting their first child, currently 4 months pregnant with a baby boy. All of her friends and family are aware and very excited. Dawn and Ben live in the Orange County suburb of Tustin Ranch and she is looking forward to this next chapter of her life. She talks to Mary Anne all the time, stays in contact with Kristy on Facebook and while she occasionally sees Stacey and Claudia, who both now live in the Los Angeles area, being 1 hour and a half away, they mostly stay in contact via Facebook, emails or text but they have still gotten together numerous times over the past 10 years.

After graduation, Stacey McGill went to California to study mathematics at UCLA. She graduated with honors and after 4 years of college, grew to love the California sun and decided to stay at UCLA for graduate school studying education and upon completion of her graduate degree at 24, began student teaching at various schools in the Los Angeles area. During that time, Stacey unexpectedly got pregnant by Ben Katz, a man she was only casually dating. They decided to keep the child, a daughter named Ava McGill Katz, and tried to give their relationship a real try. They moved in together right before Ava was born but soon realized they really had nothing in common and a lot of tension and hostility developed between them and they began fighting constantly, before ultimately ending their relationship when Ava was almost 2. Stacey has primary custody, with Ben taking her every other weekend. They still don't like each other or get along but Ben loves Ava and is a terrific father to her and Stacey secretly relishes in her child free weekends where she can relax and still partake in her favorite pastime, shopping. Claudia Kishi was Stacey's rock during her tumultuous relationship and breakup with Ben and they are still best friends. Stacey is now a calculus teacher at the private and exclusive Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. Her and Ava live nearby in a small but cute home in neighboring Studio City. He father had a heart attack and passed away 3 years ago and Stacey misses him terribly but is very greatful he got to meet his only grandchild. She is still close with her mom, who has retired from Bellaire's Department store and moved to a retirement neighborhood in Henderson, Nevada where she bought a home. They visit each other as often as they can, with only a one hour plane ride between them. Stacey has managed to take good care of herself throughout the years, exercising and eating well and while she still does have the occasional bad day relating to her health, her diabetes hasn't caused her any real permanent issues or problems. She's also on an insulin pump and uses a continuous glucose monitor, which combined has really helped her keep good control over her blood sugars and has kept her healthy and alert, allowing her to be a focused teacher and an ever-present and loving mom to now 4 year old Ava and they are always busy and out and about, going on Mommy Daughter adventures together.

Claudia Kishi always knew that art was her calling and applied to and was accepted to several art schools along the east coast with Boston College of the Arts being her number one choice but once her best friend was accepted to UCLA, she applied to CALArts in Valencia, California on a whim and was shocked but thrilled when she received her acceptance letter and followed Stacey to California. They hung out all the time, despite almost an hour driving distance between their schools. Eventually Claudia left the dorms and moved into an apartment with Stacey in L.A., borrowed money from her parents, bought a rinky dinky car and dealt with the long daily commute to school. Claudia graduated with a BFA in painting. Having a college degree was something she never imagined she'd be able to do as she struggled academically throughout middle and high school. She makes her living working as an assistant to famed watercolorist Ricardo Clements but also has her own studio and paints mostly abstract oil portraits of people and unique abstract nature landscapes. She has sold many of her paintings and some have ended up in galleries all over the country. She occasionally sets up a booth at various art festivals and sells her pain't insurance that way as well. She has a boyfriend, art gallery manager Frankie Karel. Claudia was unfortunately diagnosed with bone cancer at 23, went into remission after 1 year of treatment but suffered a relapse two years later at 25, which she also beat after a grueling year of chemo. Being in remission for the past 3 years, Claudia feels she is living on borrowed time and knows her aggresive type of cancer will eventually come back and kill her so she tries to live every day to the fullest. Her cancer finally encouraged her to kick that nasty junk food habit and she now eats well and clean and while her past chemo effects and weakened bones sap her energy and cause pain often, she tries to exercise when she can. Like Claudia by her side during her hard times, Stacey was also Claudia's support system, holding her hand throughout her chemo rounds and recovery, as was Claudia's boyfriend whom she met right after her first remission. They live together in Beverly Hills but are far from wealthy as they also pay rent for Claudia's loft/art studio in the grungier area of downtown L.A and in Beverly Hills, they just share a small 2 bedroom apartment. They see Stacey and Ava quite often as they live only 20 minutes apart from each other.

None of the Baby-Sitters keep in contact with Mallory or Jessi, their junior officers, as they were two years younger and didn't have much in common or anything to talk about once the both of them left the club. Kristy is the only one who is friends with both of them on Facebook but neither of them have reached out to her or tried to contact her, despite her adding them as friends. She knows Mallory is a journalist and has also written a few books and now lives in Upstate New York. Jessi moved back to New Jersey, where she attended college but Kristy doesn't know what she does for a living. Nobody knows what became or happened to Abby Stevenson but she never really fit into their group and could never fill Dawn's shoes.

As life goes, the young Baby-Sitters from Connecticut have grown into succesful women and they have all moved along with their lives, separated by thousands of miles and living busy adult lives on opposite coasts. The last time they were all together before Dawn's wedding was at their high school graduation. A very surprising and unexpected email from Cokie Mason to Kristy Thomas would get them all together again for the first time in years!

To: kristinthomas  
From: cokiegirl

Subject: Stoneybrook High School 10 year Reunion!

Message:  
Hello fellow SHS alums! Has it really been 10 years since we last walked the halls? I'm afraid it has been and you know what that means?! It's time for our 10 year high school reunion and I, your former head cheerleader and prom queen, and current reunion coordinator, Cokie Mason formally invite you to celebrate with your former classmates!

WHAT: Stoneybrook High school 10 year reunion

WHERE: The Hotel S, Ballroom 2 in Downtown Stoneybrook Connecticut

WHEN: January 20th, 2017 7:00 PM

Open bar and a sit down dinner, followed by a live dj and dancing all night long!

Fill out the attached questionnaire, filling us in on what's been going on in your life and please attach a current photo of yourself with your RSVP. Please feel free to forward the invite to any SHS alums, as I don't have email addresses and Facebook pages for everyone. Hope to see you there!

"Whaaaaat?" said a stunned Kristy as she sat at her desk at work, going through her morning ritual of drinking her coffee and reading all her emails. Her first thought was how in the world her former arch enemy, Cokie Mason got her work email address before remembering that her place of work was on her Facebook page and therefore, public knowledge. Her second thought was the realization that she, along with her friends are indeed getting older but her third and final thought was that this presents the perfect opportunity for the original members of the Baby-Sitter's Club to get together again and that idea mill within her brain started cranking away with all the things they can do together once everyone was back together in Connecticut! She hurriedly called Mary Anne's cell and when she answered, Kristy screamed into the phone, "Mary Anne! Check your email!"

Thanks for reading! There will be more of this story to come very soon!


	2. Chapter 2

"Woah! Jeez, Kris." said Mary Anne Spier as she yanked the phone away from her now ringing left ear. She switched sides just in time to hear Kristy say in a lowered voice, "I'm so sorry..but please check!" "Alright, hold on a sec," said Mary Anne as she minimized Kristy's call on her cell and opened up her gmail. As soon as she saw Cokie Mason's name and then the subject line, she knew that was what got Kristy in a tizzy.

"Wow..how about that? 10 years already?" sighed Mary Anne as she read through the entire email and questionnaire with a silent Kristy on the other line before finally saying, "You know, I've been so preoccupied with our engagement and then all the wedding planning, then the honeymoon and now with this house project, the fact that it's been 10 years? Honestly, Kris, it hasn't even crossed my mind."

"Seriously," laughed Kristy. "Me neither, up until 5 minutes ago."

"Sooo..I take it you want to go?" said Mary Anne, with a smirk on her face that she wished Kristy could see.

"Well of course I do!" exclaimed Kristy, not catching Mary Anne's sarcastic tone. "How about you?"

Mary Anne replied, "Oh yeah, for sure! I mean, The S Hotel is only 15 minutes away from my place and what? About 2 from yours?!"

"Ehh, more like 3," Kristy jokingly interrupted before Mary Anne continued on, "it really would be great to see everyone again! It seems like everyone in our class besides us left Stoneybrook, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. You, Me..and Cokie. Ugh. I can't believe she moved back here" replied Kristy in a nasty tone, recalling the incident about 6 months ago of bumping into Cokie, literally, in her office lobby one morning, causing Kristy to drop the two sandwich platters and tray of cupcakes she was taking up to her office for the "new hire orientation lunch" she holds once every 3 months. "Be nice" said Mary Anne. "You know she had nowhere else to go."

Kristy always marveled at her her best friend's kindness towards others, especially right now towards a girl who tormented the BSC for years and ended up finally stealing her boyfriend, Logan in the 9th grade. Kristy quickly shoved Cokie's sob story to the back of her mind before she could feel sorry for her and said "Alright then. So what about our California girls? You think they'll want to come?"

"I really don't know," replied Mary Anne. "They both have so much going on right now but it would be so nice to see them again. I mean, if they are able to, I don't see why they wouldn't want to come. Oh my gosh, remember how much fun we had together in California at Dawn's wedding?!"

"Oh yes" lamented Kristy. "We really could use another BSC reunion, this time east coast style. It's been way too long." At that moment, Kristy's office phone rang. "Hang on," she quickly said to Mary Anne and picked up the desk phone. "Kristin Thomas speaking." "Good morning Miss Thomas!" Kim, the receptionist answered back. "Your 9:00 appointment is here." "Oh yes! Thank you. Go ahead and send her in" replied Kristy before returning to Mary Anne's call. "Hey, I have an interview coming in right now and gotta get back to work so I'm going to let you go. I'll go ahead and contact Stacey and Claudia later today." "Ok, sounds good" said Mary Anne and she added, "I'll talk to you later and don't forget you're coming over Saturday to help us paint the downstairs bathroom!" "Yes I remember," replied Kristy. "I'll head over there after my softball game. Talk to you later. Bye!" and hung up the phone just as she received a knock at her door. "Come in!" said Kristy. A young looking blonde lady in a suit walked in as Kristy stood up, arm extended for a handshake as she said "Hi, you must be Leslie" as she shook her hand and added, "I'm Kristin. I'm the human resources manager and I'll be conducting your interview today. It's nice to meet you." "You too" her interviewee quietly replied. Kristy gestured to the armchair on the opposite side of her desk before adding, "Please have a seat." As this young lady got comfortable, Kristy asked her "Before we get started, can I get you some coffee? Or maybe some water?" Slightly surprised, Leslie replied, "Umm, yeah. Yeah, sure. Some water would be nice, thank you." "Ok, I'll be right back" responded Kristy and she hurriedly went to the break room. Getting an interviewee coffee or water was not something that Kristy normally did but she couldn't focus on her interview without taking care of one little thing and quickly pulled out her phone and scrolled to Stacey's number. She stopped on her name, pausing for a quick second looking at the contact picture of her blonde curly haired friend with her then 1 year old daughter that she took of them when they were last together in California. She typed out "Good morning, Miss McGill! How are you?" before hitting send. Not having the time to text Claudia, she grabbed the water and got back to her interview, promising herself she would contact her later that afternoon.


	3. Chapter 3

Mary Anne hung up her phone and leaned back in her chair in the student cafeteria, drinking her coffee and eating her eggs and oatmeal before starting her work day in the library. She watched her phone turn to black and said quietly to herself "10..years." and smiled, reflecting on that for a minute, but also of the past 15 years of friendship, adventures and memories created while she was in the Babysitters Club. She really hoped everyone could attend the reunion, imagining the event with all the girls there before she snapped out of it, realizing she was daydreaming and needed to be in the library in 5 minutes so she got up, dumped her trash and quickly headed over to the library.

She clocked in and saw her student employee already there and smiled at her, like she does every morning. Her student employee was none other than an old babysitting charge, Charlotte Johanssen, now 23 years old and a stunning young woman, with beautiful brown eyes, long dark hair and who now towered over petite Mary Anne at 5 foot 10 inches tall. Despite knowing her since she was a little girl, working every day with Charlotte didn't really remind her of the Baby-Sitters Club. More than that, Charlotte just reminded Mary Anne of herself at that age, only with very different goals. While Mary Anne was, is and always will be content working in the library, Charlotte sure wasn't and she was going places far beyond anything Mary Anne wanted to do. She was strictly in the library to earn extra money, as her stipend from the University just covered the basics. She is in her last year of her graduate studies at Stoneybrook U, having skipped 2 grades in school and due to receive her PhD this year. She plans to go into cancer research, after her mother, Dr. Johanssen passed away from a rare cancer called Synovial Sarcoma while she was still at Yale as an undergrad. Despite receiving treatment in Texas at one of the best cancer facilities in the country, Dr. Johansen still passed away and after Charlotte heard about Claudia Kishi's cancer battle going on around the same time, she decided it was a sign to go into that field. Charlotte handled the death of her mother quite well but she is very heartbroken that she will never get to see what she has acomplished.

"Good morning, Mrs. Carnahan" said Charlotte with a wink, since up until two months ago, everyone called her Miss Spier, and Charlotte just always calling her Mary Anne, having known her for over 15 years. "Good morning, Char" Mary Anne replied. "How are you this morning?" "Tired" she said, adding "Working on my thesis until 1am. Thank goodness I don't have morning classes on Tuesdays." "Well..I hope you're ready for the purge we're doing today" said Mary Anne. "I'll be ok" replied Charlotte, always willing to help.

Mary Anne and Charlotte had a big project for the day, pulling their entire inventory of freshman english lit books to make room for the updated version, which was to arrive 2 days later in a huge shipment. It was also a long and exhausting process of scanning each barcoded book, deleting it from their inventory in the system as well as scanning on a paper list, to make sure their physical inventory matched their printed one. Plus, getting back all the checked out books from each freshman and trading the new books once the shipment came in, THEN divvying up the old books and donating them to various community colleges throughout Connecticut. Mary Anne predicted this process would take two weeks, but it definitely was a nice break from the quiet monotonous days in the library. They got to work, pulling, scanning and boxing up books, chatting all the while about the various things going on in each other lives but Mary Anne deciding not to bring up the reunion to Charlotte just in case Stacey couldn't make it and she didn't want to get her hopes up, as she was sure she would want to see her favorite former baby-sitter if she was in town. Mary Anne wasn't even sure if Stacey and Charlotte were even in contact these days and didn't want to ask. Obviously they spoke of Kristy but the only mention of any other BSC member was Claudia and that was Charlotte just asking how she's doing, health wise. Mary Anne wasn't even sure how Charlotte found out about Claudia's cancer.

Mary Anne and Charlotte worked on their project for hours, leaving the library in the hands of of two other librarians, before Charlotte finally complained about being hungry. Mary Anne, now noticing her own stomach rumbling as well, checked the clock and saw it was 11:58. Perfect timing, as it was almost her lunch break and the end of Charlotte's shift.

As they were walking out of the library together, Mary Anne asked, "Would you like to grab lunch with me?" Charlotte said sadly "Aww, I'd love to but I really want to get back to my apartment and take a quick nap. I have class at 2 and I'll just eat at home."

"Ok, no problem" said Mary Anne. "You're working with me Friday morning, right?"

"Sure am" replied Charlotte

"Ok. I think all that will be left for you on Friday will be checking out the new books to the freshman so you'll probably be at the desk all day" said Mary Anne.

Charlotte replied, "I have NO problem with that!" before laughing and saying "Physical labor in the library wasn't really what I signed up for. I'll see you on Friday!" and she waved as they parted ways, Charlotte to the parking lot and Mary Anne back to the cafeteria.

Mary Anne just grabbed a quick sandwich from the refrigerated sandwich vending machine and a water from the soda machine next to it and sat down at a table alone. Normally, Mary Anne always has a lunch buddy, be it Charlotte, a fellow librarian or even a student but today, her mind was elsewhere, deciding if she should in fact talk to Charlotte about the possibility of Stacey coming and whether to reach out to Claudia and Stacey, even though Kristy said she'd handle it, mixed in with thoughts about her house and all the things she still needs to do. Finally, she decided to shut off her brain and give her step-sister, Dawn a call.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time Dawn Schaefer-Weiss pulled into the driveway of her spanish-style California home, it was about 6:00pm. Dawn had endured a very long day at the office she shares with her stepmother, Carol. While both of them are very successful independent interior designers with impressive portfolios, they had actually teamed up for a new project, mostly due to the size of it but also because of Dawn's pregnancy slowing her down a bit and her having to take off for doctors appointments. They were designing and decorating a brand new high-end steakhouse in Ladera Ranch called Luke's. The owner, Luke Ruben was already a succesful car dealership owner who had met Carol 8 years ago when he had hired the then-named Schaefer Interiors to design a dream closet for his wife, which Carol did very successfully. He trusted her skills and had hired her throughout the years for smaller jobs including designing the nurseries for his two children and redecorating his home office just last year, which Dawn actually had the pleasure of doing Now breaking into the restaurant business, he hired C & D Designs to help him make his new Texas/California fusion BBQ luxurious yet comfortable. So far, Dawn and Carol have worked up a cool concept with dark woods and red accents and lights. Dawn was thinking about also adding red silk panels on the walls to be scattered evenly throughout the restaurant and made a mental note to run it by Carol to see what her thoughts were but in the meantime, Luke had already approved of the wall color and the wood floors they have chosen and the painters are due to finish up tomorrow, with the floors going in 3 days after that. By that time, Dawn is hoping that the custom curved bar she personally designed will be finished and delivered as well, so that can be installed right after the floors go in. It's already a week behind schedule, which is frustrating Dawn a bit but tonight, all she wants to do is have a quiet dinner, watch tv, relax at home and she'll deal with the construction issues tomorrow at the office while Carol will go to the restaurant and check out the painting progress.

She walked upstairs to drop all her binders, fabric and tile swatches and mountain of handwritten notes and sketches on her desk in her home office that she shares with her husband. While they have a spacious 5 bedroom home and can easily have two separate offices, they want to save their extra rooms for the larger family they are hoping for someday. So far, they are using one room for their excersise equipment and the other for their guest room, leaving one bedroom for the nursery but they are planning on moving their home gym to the extra space in their 3-car garage if they are lucky enough to be be blessed with any more babies after their son arrives.

Dawn then headed to her bedroom to change into some more comfortable clothes before going back downstairs to prepare some dinner for herself and her husband, anesthesiologist Dr. Ben Weiss. C & D designs is a pretty laid back office and Dawn and Carol don't enforce any kind of strict dress code, with jeans and tees being the usual for all employees but earlier that day, Dawn had a meeting with Mr. Ruben at the restaurant site so she had to sport a more polished look that day, wearing a black pencil skirt with matching blazer, black faux-suede flats and a red silk blouse, purposely chosen by Dawn to reflect the restaurants color scheme in an effort to make him feel even more at ease with her. She also wore her light blonde hair in a sleek bun, which she undid at soon as she got into her bedroom, placing the bobby pins on her bathroom counter and her naturally straight hair falling down her back in waves, from being twisted into a bun all day. Dawn then tossed her binding office duds in her laundry hamper and walked over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of light blue flowy cotton pajama bottoms and paired it with the first thing her hand touched in her tshirt drawer, which happened to be her UCLA t-shirt that was given to her by Stacey McGill about 5 years ago. As she pulled it on, her hands brushed against her barely there baby bump and she walked over to her floor length mirror and turned to the side to check out her new profile. While she definitely noticed a change in her body, there's no way any stranger on the street would know she was pregnant. She looked down and smiled before saying to her unborn son, "we're getting there" and then headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Health nut Dawn started boiling some water while she pulled a box of whole wheat pasta from the cupboard and began chopping up some kale, onions, tomatoes, garlic and spinach. Her state of the art electric stove boiled water in just a few minutes so after she had finished chopping, she dumped the pot of pasta in the boiling water before dumping her veggies in a neighboring skillet. She remembered she had actually pre-sliced some tofu sausages the night before and dumped those in her skillet, getting everything nice and crispy and by then, the pasta was done as well. After straining her noodles, she dumped them back in the pot and then piled all the veggies and sausages on top, with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, some salt, pepper and a just a little bit of plain soymilk to give it a creamy sauce texture, it was quite the healthy and hearty dinner but as she stared at her suddenly very unappetizing pasta..and with her vegan husband not expected home for hours, Dawn's pregnancy cravings got the best of her. She put all the pasta in a bowl and placed it in the fridge to let it cool down for her husband and then picked up the phone and ordered a medium pepperoni pizza and an Italian antipasto salad. After hanging up the phone, Dawn burst out laughing, with her laugh echoing in her large kitchen before saying to herself, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

It only took about 25 minutes for her unhealthy dinner to arrive and once it did, Dawn took it and sat on the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table and balancing the hot pizza box on her lap and placing the salad container next to her, continuing to switch between the two. She channel surfed for a bit before settling on a Discovery Channel special about earthquakes, thinking a native Californian should always be aware of any kind of recent scientific discoveries. Dawn finished her salad and polished off two slices of pizza before deciding she had had enough so she got back up to wrap the remaining slices in tin foil and find a place in the fridge where she can hide it. She settled on the crisper drawer, under the lettuce. After her sneaky deed, Dawn sat back on the couch, watching TV, waiting for her husband to get home and reflecting on the long phone call she had on her lunch break with her step-sister, Mary Anne. They talked about all sorts of things in that hour, ranging from family and babies, Dawn's pregnancy, Mary Anne's house renovations with Dawn's corresponding design/decorating advice and finally to the Stoneybrook High School Reunion, which obviously Dawn wasn't invited to but it got her thinking about her Palo City High reunion..or the lack thereof because she hasn't heard anything about one but she reminded herself to ask her best friend, Sunny if she may have. Something that Dawn thought was unusual was Mary Anne's suggestion that she come too and Dawn recalled her reaction: "Um, Mary Anne, I didn't go to high school with you guys, remember? I'm not invited, nor do I even want to go because I only talk to a few people from the Connecticut days. Plus, I'm pregnant and I shouldn't be flying anywhere anyways." She wasn't even sure why she said that because she already knew it was still ok to fly and travel. While it wasn't Dawn's intention to be rude, she now realized that maybe her moody pregnancy hormones might have been to blame and it may have come off that way, seeing as Mary Anne ended the conversation soon after but Dawn again thought to herself that she has no right to attend.

Finally getting tired, she went back upstairs to lay down in the bed but couldn't fall asleep, with too many thoughts and memories keeping her awake. She felt she should call Mary Anne to apologize. She started thinking about the first time she met Mary Anne back in 7th grade, having no idea what the future held for the two of them, her mind then drifting to her first meeting with the Babysitter's Club and how lucky she felt that in her new school in a new state, this group of girls accepted her and let her into their club. If only she could have imagined then, all the fun that they would have or that she'd gain a stepsister and stepfather. Memories of all their adventures, ranging from being CIT's at summer camp, going to New York and Hawaii together, the amazing cruise to Florida and the trip to Disney World that followed and even the ill-fated boat race that left her and Claudia stranded on an island with their baby-sitting charges.

She loves California because it's home to her and loves her California friends and family more than anything but realized that she had never had the fun or the amazing memories with them the way she does with the friends she made in Stoneybrook. She was part of a wonderful group of girls who all grew up to be amazing women and while it was nice to have Claudia and Stacey just a car ride away, Dawn regretted not seeing them more often and decided to text Kristy in the morning to say hi and also planned to give Stacey a call later in the day tomorrow to see if her, Ava and Claudia might like to get together in the next few weeks, before the reunion, in the event they were both going.

Before she knew it, was almost 11 when she she heard her husband, Ben come in the room. "Hey babe" he said. "What in the world are you doing still awake?"

"Hey..must be pregnancy insomnia or something" lied Dawn.

"Bummer" said Ben before laying down next to her and giving her a gentle kiss on the lips and then patted her stomach, asking "how's our little guy doing?"

"Well, he's..in there" replied Dawn, adding "I still don't really feel pregnant yet, though."

"Give it time babe." said Ben. "You will."

"Hey, I made you some pasta if you're hungry." said Dawn.

"Oooh, yes! Definitely. Long day. Three surgeries back to back and I haven't eaten since breakfast" said Mike pitifully. "I'll be right back."

As he walked out, Dawn marveled at him. While his intelligence was indeed attractive to her, superficially his physical appearance was even more so. His half Mexican, Half Jewish ethnic background gave him his dark hair and eyes and a light brown skin tone, but courtesy of his redheaded Caucasian father, a bunch of freckles were sprinkled across his nose, in an almost identical pattern to Dawn's sun kissed face. While his crazy and stressful work schedule forced him to eat sporadically, resulting in a slimmer build, every meal he ate was always vegan, healthy and protein rich and he worked out whenever he was up for it. Usually only twice a week but he was still in decent shape.

He returned a few minutes later with his pasta and a glass of diet coke, his one bad dietary habit, and ate his food in bed, watching TV and Dawn laying next to him, her head on his chest. She really loved him just as much as the day she married him, if not more.

"Honey?" asked Dawn?

"What's up?" asked Ben.

"Um..do you think you'll be able to get yourself off the surgery schedule and get any time time off from work? Maybe just 4 days or something? Possibly a Thursday to Sunday?" asked Dawn almost hesitantly.

Ben replied "I don't really know, Dawn. I can certainly check but when were you thinking..and why do you want me to?"

"Weeelll" said Dawn slowly "Definitely next month, after the holidays. Maybe around mid-January? I want to go on a trip with you. I know I'm still allowed to fly."

"Oh, you're talking about a REAL trip?" said Ben who then added "I just don't think you should be on a pressurized plane for a long time. How about San Francisco?!" he exclaimed excitedly, the bay area being his hometown.

"Sorry but I really want to go somewhere farther away" said Dawn.

"Hmm.." thought Ben out loud before saying, "Wanna go back to Portland? I know it will be wet and rainy but remember how beautiful it was?" him recalling the trip they took there about a year and a half ago, visiting the Columbia River Gorge, Mount Hood, walking around downtown Portland together and even breaking their vegan diets to indulge at VooDoo Donuts.

"Oregon isn't really what I would consider further away" laughed Dawn.

"You want to try something more exotic? Like Hawaii? It's only - what, a 4 hour flight?" said Ben.

While a beach vacation appealed to her and she pondered the idea for a second, she quickly shook that notion off before replying to her husband, "That really would be amazing, hon but I was thinking the East Coast."

"Oh..ok." said Ben. "It would be freezing in January but you want to explore The Big Apple?" That could work, I guess. We'd have to buy gloves, hats, thick coats-"

"Oh my Lord, STOP!" interrupted Dawn.

Ben stopped himself and apologized, saying "I'm getting too ahead of myself, aren't I? I guess I need that vacation more than you do!" he laughed.

"It's ok." said Dawn, sitting up and gently taking her husband's hand into hers, displayed that wonderful smile her husband loved so much and said, "Actually, I was thinking about Connecticut."


	5. Chapter 5

It wasn't until her lunch hour at 12:00pm before high school calculus teacher, Stacey McGill was able to check her phone. Having three classes back to back, she didn't have any downtime in the mornings but with the students now at lunch, she can relax by herself at her desk, eat the tuna salad sandwich she had brought for lunch and finally get around to checking the messages that she had been hearing buzz in on her phone throughout the morning from inside her desk drawer.

She saw three text messages and one email waiting for her and decided to weed through the texts first. The first one was regarding a holiday potluck party at her daughter, Ava's preschool prompting Stacey to think for just a moment about what she should bring before moving on the the next one, which was just a reminder text for her appointment with her OB/GYN the following Tuesday. The third text she saw was from Ben, her ex and Ava's dad, which immediately made her cheeks flush red with anger, but luckily for her it simply read, "I'll be at your house at 10:00 sharp tomorrow. Please make sure Ava is ready," which made her breathe a sigh of relief. The fourth and final text was from none other than Kristy Thomas, her old friend from Connecticut and president of the Baby Sitters Club, the group she belonged to for many years. It read:

"Good Morning, Miss McGill! How are you?" "Woah" thought Stacey, realizing she couldn't even remember the last time she spoke to Kristy but she was definitely happy to see a text from her and eager to catch up so she texted back quickly, "Hey Kristy! I'm good. Long time no talk! How are you? Can I call you tonight? I'd love to talk to you but can't until after Ava goes to bed, like around 7?" An immediate response of "Absolutely!" was received. That definitely perked Stacey up and put a smile on her face before then checking on her email. Stacey was quite shocked when she realized the email was from none other than Cokie Mason, longtime enemy of the BSC. Stacey said out loud to herself "Is this SHS reunion day or something?" before reading the email in all its entirety and then cracking up at herself after seeing Cokie's invitation. Talking to herself out loud again, she laughed and said, "I guess it is!"

She leaned back in her chair, pondering the notion that in just about a month, she could be in the same room with her childhood friends. It's not like she hadn't thought about it recently, being a high school teacher and her school holding their own 10 year reunions in their gym every year, she had a feeling that an SHS reunion was going to happen soon. After thinking about it for only a few brief minutes, she really didn't see any reason why she shouldn't attend, other than childcare and of course, travel expenses so she looked on her phone's calendar to the date of the reunion and saw that Ben would have Ava that weekend. Once that was settled and more on a whim than anything else, she logged into her credit card website to view her travel points and she saw that she had more than enough flyer miles on her credit card to get her to Connecticut and back. Already there were two signs pointing to yes but Stacey wanted to talk with her best friend, Claudia Kishi first and see if she would want to go too.

Stacey began to text Claudia but was startled when her classroom door swung wide open and her boss, Principal David Adams walked in. An attractive older man with intense blue eyes and dark blonde hair, flecked with some gray, as he was 44 years old, was also in decent shape and very physically domineering at 6 foot 3 inches tall. His physical stature, deep voice and general intensity made him quite intimidating to all of the students and a majority of the faculty as well, making him a perfect fit to run the school. "Miss McGill" he loudly said, "I need to have a word with you" before slamming the door and walking right up to her. He then walked up to her and put his hands on the sides of her shoulders, pulled her up from her chair into a standing position, and said "have I told you how incredibly sexy you are?" before kissing her passionately on the lips. "David stop!" said Stacey sternly to him after she pulled away and she gestured with her hand toward the classroom windows saying "the kids are at lunch on the yard and can see in here!" Then added in a more light hearted tone "and you cant kiss me while I'm eating a tuna sandwich!" He laughed and said "You can eat whatever you want. I'll still want to kiss you." which made Stacey smile and he added "I just wanted to see you for a sec but I also just wanted to ask what time Ben is taking Ava tomorrow?

Stacey said "10."

"Ok." he replied. "I'll be over closer to 11 then and we'll head straight over to the Grove," referring to the famed outdoor mall in Los Angeles. "We'll go get Ava's present first and then lunch?" he asked.

Stacey replied "Yeah, that's fine."

"Ok. I need to get back to my office" said David before cupping her face in his hands and kissing her once more, saying "love you" and started walking away when Stacey said back to him "I love you too." As he walked out of the door, he said over his shoulder, "Brush your teeth!" Making Stacey laugh and shake her head as she watched her boyfriend of two and a half years walk away.

Stacey and David got along fabulously and were madly in love with each other but due to him holding the highest position in the school, he was not allowed to date any employee, which was really the only problem in their relationship. They hated sneaking around and hiding their love, as they had talked about moving in together and possibly getting married one day but the only way for them to move forward with their relationship was for Stacey to leave her teaching position and only being there a little over 3 years, she was not willing to do that yet and he respected that and for now, they just had to continue doing what they were doing. Stacey then picked up her phone and shifted her attention back to texting Claudia before a wave of nausea interrupted her, similar to the one she had that morning. She put her phone down, closed her eyes and took slow deep breaths until it passed. She grabbed her sandwich, got up and proceeded to walk to the quad to throw away the rest of it and to grab a ginger ale from the soda machine, thinking that would help. After getting the soda and heading back to her classroom, she began drinking her ginger ale and started feeling a bit nervous. Her outing with her boyfriend tomorrow was not just going to be a lunch date and visiting the American Girl store to pick out a doll for Ava's birthday. She was going to break the news to him that she was pregnant with his baby, which she had found out about two weeks ago. She didn't know how he was going to take the news because even though he adores her daughter, he's well into his 40s, has been dealing with children for decades and may not want any of his own. Unfortunately, it just wasn't something they ever talked about. Stacey sat down at her desk and just hoped this was all going to work out, before thinking how crazy it is that some women do everything right, get married first, are in perfect health and can't ever get pregnant and here she is, a diabetic for nearly twenty years and a self proclaimed "diet coke-aholic" and keeps getting knocked up by her boyfriends without even trying, which then reminded her that she needed to give some insulin to cover that ginger ale she was sipping on, since it wasn't diet. She pulled out her insulin pump attached to her belt and upped her normal dosage by another unit, hoping that would do the trick. The days of her sneaking off to the bathroom to give an insulin injection and her secretly poking her finger underneath the table at restaurants to check her blood sugar are long gone. Her continuous glucose monitor gives her a blood sugar reading every five minutes and beeps in a high pitch alarm if she starts to runs too high or too low. It's taken a great deal of stress and inconvenience out of her diabetes management.

Stacey got through the day feeling a bit better and with only two classes after lunch, she was out of the school by 4:00. She walked through the faculty parking lot to her black VW Jetta and pulled out of the parking lot to head over to HappyLand, Ava's preschool, which was just ten minutes away. A VW seemed a bit modest for such a fancy and fashionable girl like Stacey, but as a single mom being the sole provider, she had to choose a reliable car that was in her budget. Never being married, Stacey wasn't entitled to any financial support from Ben and to avoid any legal problems or going to court, they agreed that he would pay Ava's pre school tuition in lieu of child support.

In no time at all, Stacey had arrived at the preschool and pulled into a spot. The school's after care closed at 5 and it being only 4:15, she stayed in the car for a few minutes and decided to give her best friend Claudia a quick call. When Claudia picked up, all Stacey could hear was a muffled sound.

"Hello? Claud?" said Stacey. "Can you hear me?"

More muffled sounds followed for about 5 seconds before Stacey finally heard her best friend's voice on the other line saying, "Sorry Stace. I had my respirator on," which meant that Claudia was in the middle of working on an oil painting because she always wears one to protect her from breathing in the toxic smelling oil fumes.

Claudia added "What's up?"

"I'm in the parking lot at Ava's school and I'm just a bit early so I wanted to give you a quick call." said Stacey

"Oh ok. How are you feeling?" asked Claudia?

"I'm doing okay but I started feeling a little sick this morning and again this afternoon."

"Aw, I'm sorry Stace" said Claudia, then asking, "you're still telling David this weekend though, right?"

Stacey replied, "Yes. We're going to the Grove tomorrow and I'm going to tell him when we have lunch. I'm so scared."

"Why?" asked Claudia?

"I'm just so nervous it'll mess everything up." said Stacey. "I mean, we've never talked about him wanting kids of his own and we're so good together and he's so good with Ava, but who knows how he'll handle this news?"

"Stacey," said Claudia in a reassuring tone of voice, "I am telling you that that man worships the ground you walk on, he loves everything about you. I think this is all going to work out for the best."

"You really think so?" asked Stacey

Claudia replied, "Yeah, I really do. You and Ben were a joke and you know that. You guys barely knew each other."

"I know" sighed Stacey.

Claudia sighed and said, "You have been with Dave for years now, you guys hardly ever fight, he agores your daughter, and you are a perfect match. He's a great guy, Stace. He really is."

Stacey repeated "I know."

"Don't be nervous and no matter what, you know I am always here for you." said Claudia.

"Thanks, hon. I really don't know what I would do without you" said Stacey, adding "Hey, listen. I only have a few minutes but I actually wanted to ask you something else. Did you happen to get the email about the SHS reunion?"

Claudia burst out laughing before saying "I did! I was gonna call you about that tonight! Man, I saw that email from Cokie and I was like 'what the F?' Haha!"

"Right?!" exclaimed Stacey.

"Kristy actually texted me about an hour ago too. I'm assuming that's what it was about?" asked Claudia.

"I would assume so. She texted me too. I'm going to call her tonight." said Stacey. "Sooo..what do you think? You up for a mini East Coast vacay?"

Claudia sighed before saying, "Well, I guess would be nice to visit my folks for a change instead of them always coming out here and it would great to see Mary Anne and Kristy, but do YOU want to go? I really don't want go fly across the country alone. I know Frankie can't go. He's too busy with work."

Stacey said, "Well, I'm definitely leaning towards going because Ben actually has Ava that weekend and I checked my flyer miles and I have enough to get there and back. I do only have them so Ava and I can fly to Nevada to visit my mom but she'll understand this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?"

"For sure." replied Claudia.

"Is it even doable for you?" asked Stacey, considering Claudia has a very sporadic income from her paintings .

Claudia said, "Actually, the painting I'm working on is a commission and I'm just putting finishing touches on it. I'll probably be finished with it tomorrow and I'm delivering it next week so once I do that, I'll definitely have enough money for a plane ticket but I'll need some time to think about it."

"Of course." said Stacey but hearing the tone in her best friend's voice, it sure sounded like Claudia wasn't interested.

"Do whatever you want to do, though. If you want to go, don't wait around for me" said Claudia.

"Ok." replied Stacey, doing her best to not sound bummed out before adding "I gotta get going. Talk to you later?"

"Alright" replied Claudia "call me tomorrow when you can."

"Will do. Bye." said Stacey.

She then got out of her car to pick up her daughter. Still a fashion lover, she has had to adjust her style to accommodate the warm California weather. December on the East Coast would have had her in boots that could handle the snow, a jacket, hat and gloves but the winter in Los Angeles allowed her to wear a lightweight white silk blouse with a black striped pattern, thin cut black slacks and black patent Christian Louboutin heels, which were a gift from her boyfriend, as she'd never be able to afford shoes like that. Not as thin as she was as a teenager, Stacey still maintained a healthy weight and decent figure and was able to tuck in her blouse without any excess hanging over her belt. No longer in fashion to have permed hair, her now straight and very healthy hair fell about an inch past her shoulders. While a natural dirty blonde, she gets her hair highlighted regularly, making her hair appear a few shades lighter. While she never pays attention because she has a boyfriend, men look and stare at Stacey wherever she goes and she is quite stunning.

She walked into the preschool and right into the after school daycare room, which was just off to the side of the entrance. As she walked in, she smiled as she saw her adorable and slightly chubby blonde daughter, who looked just like her, playing with a friend in the corner of the room. Stacey didn't know how she would have handled it if her daughter ended up looking like her father, altough she did get his brown eyes instead of Stacey's dazzling blue, she still resembled her mother in almost every other way. Just then her daughter turned around and her eyes lit up as she screamed "Mommy! Mommy!" ran over to Stacey and hugged her legs before she could kneel down to give her daughter a proper hug. "Hey Ava. How was your day?" asked Stacey.

Little Ava replied "So good, Mommy! We made Christmas snowman!"

"How fun!" said Stacey, then asking "can you take it home today?"

"Nope. Its for doration" said Ava and Stacey was quickly able to translate her daughter's incorrect pronunciation of the word "decoration" but not in the mood to correct her and she said "Ok, well grab your stuff and let's go."

After strapping Ava in her booster car seat and heading on the road back to their house, Stacey asked her "What do you want for dinner tonight, baby girl?" Ava thought for a minute before replying "Donalds! Donalds!," her way of saying McDonald's. While Stacey certainly didn't want Ava eating a fast food dinner, she had to grade quizzes for two classes that night, already feeling a little tired and with those unexpected waves of nausea hitting her at random times, she really didn't feel like cooking anything and filling her kitchen with any smells that might set her off so she agreed and pulled into the McDonald's drive thru, ordered a happy meal for Ava and resisting the temptation to order a diet coke, decided to just heat up a can of lentil soup for herself for dinner and accompany that with some buttered toast with some soda water, hoping that would prevent her from the possibility of throwing up, which she hated doing more than anything.

It was about 5:00 when they got home and Ava immediately sat down at their kitchen table to eat but seemed more interested in playing with her Happy Meal toy, which allowed Stacey time to prepare her own dinner so she can sit down and enjoy dinner with her daughter and have deep conversations about her adventures at preschool, which they typically do every night. After dinner, Ava takes a bath or shower and they usually watch some TV together or will play for a little bit. Ava opted to play by herself in her room, which allowed Stacey to go to her own room to change into her pajamas, selecting a pair of black cotton pajamas with tiny pink polka dots flecked with glitter, another gift from her well off boyfriend, from the previous Christmas. After washing her face, she poked her head into Ava's bedroom and already saw her fast asleep in her bed, which tugged at Stacey's heartstrings a bit. As much as she wanted to, she didn't give Ava a kiss to avoid waking her up so she said very softly, "goodnight baby" and quietly closed the door.

Stacey then walked toward her front door to retrieve her black leather briefcase that contained all the tests she needed to grade, from the small table next to the door, where she always drops all her stuff when she gets home. Stacey sat on her couch in front of the TV, only on for background noise, continuing to sip on her soda water while grading her quizzes until she finished.

By the time she was done, she was more than ready for bed and practically collapsed into her soft leopard print comforter as soon as she walked in her room. Feeling herself fading, she happened to glance at her alarm clock on the nightstand and saw that it was almost 7:45 and she had forgotten to call Kristy. As tired as she was, she bolted up to grab her cell phone, also on her night stand. As much as she wanted to talk to her old friend, she just couldn't keep her eyes open nor have a decent conversation so she shot Kristy a quick text:

"Hey Kristy! I am SOO sorry but I haven't been feeling well today and I'm so tired. Can we talk tomorrow? "

Krist responded about 3 minutes later with, "Sure, that's no problem. Sorry you don't feel well. Can you talk between 12-1? That's when I take lunch."

Stacey quickly replied "me too so yes, I'll call you after 12."

Stacey decided to add one more quick text. "Oh yeah. I'm assuming you wanted to talk to me about the reunion?"

Kristy replied "Yes, that was one of the reasons. Do you think you want to go? Or can go?"

Stacey began thinking again about whether she should go. She had a strong feeling Claudia wouldn't be able to join her and she hated the idea of going to Connecticut without her best friend. After all, that's where they met. Then she began thinking of the other girls and while they now lived so far apart and Mary Anne and Kristy certainly weren't her best friends, she shared a unique bond with them, with so many good times had together.

Realizing it was now 5 minutes since Kristy's response, Stacey got back to her texting:

"Well, I spoke to Claudia and she's thinking about it. I'm sure she'll let me know soon. I'm sure she'll let you know as well. She got your text."

"That's good. What about you?" asked Kristy a second time.

Realizing how excited Kristy seemed to be about this reunion and deciding to have a little fun, Stacey replied with:

You know, Kris. I've given it a lot of thought and considering the cost of plane tickets, hotel and finding costs and finding someone to watch Ava" and hit send.

Not getting a response for 2 more minutes, Stacey then realized Kristy might be a little bummed so sent her final text to Kristy for the night.

"I've got it all covered. So Count me IN!"


	6. Chapter 6

Claudia Kishi was on her way to her bank to deposit the check she received for the painting she had delivered last week, a commision from a wealthy owner of a private mortgage company she had never heard of. He had seen one of her paintings in a local art gallery and wanted a personal piece painted for him to hang up in his office. Ironically, it was a colorful and abstract painting of the downtown L.A. skyline. Made sense, since the office was in the heart of downtown and Claudia was happy to do it, especially for the amount of money that came along with it. After depositing her check, she headed off to her day job working for Ricardo Clements.

Driving her light blue Toyota Prius through the backed up city streets, it would probably take her another 20 minutes to get to work, giving her time to reflect on what has been going on lately. It had been two and a half weeks since the invitation to the SHS reunion was sent out and all the original members were attending, with Dawn going as Kristy's plus on and Dawn's husband going as Stacey's. The only holdout was Claudia and while she had discussed with Stacey, her reservations about attending, she had yet to even respond to Kristy's original text. Claudia had no doubt her feelings were a little hurt but she just couldn't find it in herself to talk to Kristy right now, even though she knew she would have to make her decision and call her in the next day or two and had rehearsed the conversation in her head a good 10 times in the last two weeks.

Staying true to the "everywhere in LA takes twenty minutes" mantra, she arrived at work when she expected to, pulling into the underground parking lot of a luxury high-rise steel and glass apartment building called "The Vaso." As Ricardo's assistant, her job duties varied on a daily basis, where sometimes all she would do all day was sit there and mix colors for him, on other days she'd actually assist and help him on his actual paintings, usually filling in lines and finer details, which he was having trouble with as he has been getting older and some days she would be in charge of running his personal errands, or arranging and setting up parties or showings, getting lunch, etc. It was exhausting work but she really loves what she does and feels incredibly lucky to have actually found a job in the art world. Today was going to be different however, due to her boss being in New York to do a lecture at an art school leaving Claudia with nothing to do so she thought she'd take that opportunity to clean and organize the studio, which had gotten really messy and disheveled. She got into the fancy mirrored elevator and pressed the 10 button. Apartment #1016 housed the studio, with Ricardo living directly underneath on the 9th floor in apartment #916. While the studio was accessible via private staircase in his apartment, Claudia never felt comfortable going to his personal space and only did so when he asked her to, usually when he needed her to grab something or when he was having a party, which he does a few times a year. The studio was quite the contrast from his pristine luxury apartment, which was modern and simple, filled with various sculptures and his own unique paintings hanging on the wall, light wood floors, white quartz countertops, glass front cabinets and floor to ceiling windows. While it housed four bedrooms and two bathrooms, she had only been in his living area but imagined the other rooms were similarly decorated. Upstairs in the studio, there were concrete floors and unpainted drywall, although it was all flecked with a rainbow of paint splatters, giving it a little personality. Several large shelving units lined an entire wall with literally hundreds of bottles of paint lining the shelves, along with boxes of brushes and various chemicals. In the corner of the studio, there was a small bathroom and in the opposite corner, a folding picnic table with four plastic chairs and a black refrigerator next to it, along with a flat screen TV against the wall, which was the unofficial "break room."

Claudia dropped her purse on the picnic table and immediately got to work organzing the studio, including organizing all the art supplies and even cleaning the bathroom and clearing out leftover food from the fridge. Thinking it would be a pretty easy task, it ended up taking her hours. The last task was to sweep the entire studio and after pausing and giving the place one more look, she decided it was clean enough and sat down at the picnic table for a second to remove her cushioned boot and put her shoe back on. That day it was a dark blue glittery ballet flat, which matched the blue velvet bomber jacket she had paired with black skinny jeans and a black tank top. Usually adorned with a lot of jewelry, today she only sported simple black pearl earrings knowing she'd be doing physical labor. Claudia tried not to look at her foot but it was hard not to, the pinkish-purple scar running from he third toe down almost 2 inches was made visible by her shoe. Not looking again at the original site of her cancer, she walked down the hallway towards the elevator with her orthopedic boot in hand and pulled out her cell to call her boyfriend, Frankie. As the elevator was going down, he answered.

"Hi honey. What's up?" answered Frankie.

"Hey sweetie" replied Claudia. " I just wanted to know if you'd had lunch yet? I finished all my work at Ricardo's and I wanted to see if you'd like to grab lunch with your girlfriend."

Frankie said, "Actually no, I haven't but I was just about to go out. How far are you? I can wait."

"Oh, not even five minutes" said Claudia.

"Hold on" Frankie quickly responded, followed by a 15 second pause before he came back on the line, adding "there are four open parking spaces, so hurry."

"Be right there" Claudia quickly replied before quickly hanging up, as she was already in her car, pulling out of the parking garage and certainly didn't want to get a ticket for talking on the cell while driving. It actually took closer to ten minutes to get to the art gallery but luckily, the parking spaces were still open and Claudia was greeted by her boyfriend waiting outside. A pretty typical definition of a "hipster," Frankie was Caucasian with almost shoulder length wavy brown hair and a goatee. He had tattoos scattered up both of his arms and small stretchers in his ears. Claudia typically wouldn't go for a guy who was trendy and following the latest fad but he'd looked like that ever since she first met him years ago when they were in art school together. She got out of her car and was greeted with a kiss before her boyfriend asked, "where are we going?"

Claudia replied "I was thinking about trying Lemonade."

"Oh, that new salad place?" asked Frankie.

"Yep." said Claudia.

"Let's hoof it." said Frankie and they began to walked the 2 blocks to the restaurant.

While enjoying her delicious BBQ chicken salad, Frankie jokingly asked "So what's new?" knowing exactly what's been going on with her lately.

"Very funny" replied an annoyed Claudia.

"Have you talked to Stacey?" he asked.

She responded " Nah, she has so much going on right now. I'm leaving her alone for the week."

"What about the reunion? You gotta make that decision soon and book those plane tickets" said Frankie.

"I just don't know, honey" said Claudia before adding "I haven't been back to Stoneybrook since..you know" her eyes drifting down to her foot before darting them back up and saying "I just don't know if I can handle it. I don't know if I can see Kristy."

Frankie replied "I'm so sorry I can't go with you Claudia..but I'm just telling you right now that you're being ridiculous."

"Excuse me?!" yelled Claudia, prompting a few other customers to look at her.

"Hey, lower your voice. You know I don't mean to hurt your feelings, Claud but you're being unfair to Kristy."

"I'm traumatized!" said an angry Claudia.

"I know you are but she didn't cause your cancer, honey. You need to to call her. Call her and tell her the truth" said Frankie.

Before long, Claudia found herself back at the apartment she shared with Frankie, laying in bed on her red silk comforter and staring at the ceiling. She placed her hands behind her head, feeling the back of her neck, as she now had short hair, cut into an angled bob that only reached her chin. In the event that her cancer returned, she wanted to make the transition to being bald again an easier one. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift back about 5 years ago, to the last time she was in Connecticut, for Mary Anne's graduation. She remembered celebrating and drinking way too much with Kristy and Mary Anne at Doyle's, a local Irish pub downing two pickle backs in a row. She recalled being very unsteady on her feet and getting ready to call a cab before she felt a sharp pain in her foot as she looked down and realized Kristy had squished it with her bar stool and then drunkenly apologizing profusely. An ugly bruise on her foot greeted her the next morning but she thought to herself that drunk people do stupid things and get hurt, but by late August, her foot was still swollen and hurting so she finally went to a foot doctor who noted right away that she had been walking around on two broken toes for months but he still needed to do an xray to determine the type of cast she needed to wear. Immediately after the x-ray, the doctor's demeanor changed and he stated he saw something unusual on her foot and needed to do a biopsy on her bone and tissue. Claudia was then thrust into a horrible world that would become her new "normal." Surgeries, a diagnosis of Ewing Sarcoma, chemo, radiation, hair loss, vomiting, recurrence, more chemo, more radiation then remission. A grueling process that took years of her precious young 20s away from her. She then snapped out of her unpleasant daydream and knew it was time to call Kristy. With shaking hands and her body tingling with the beginning feelings of a panic attack, she grabbed her phone and finally called Kristy.

"Claudia!" answered Kristy. "Finally!"

"Hey Kris" said Claudia with way less enthusiasm, adding "you busy?"

"No, no. It's fine" said Kristy.

"I can text if you" Claudia started to say before Kristy interruped with "It's fine, Claud. I'm so glad you called."

"Well, I am very sorry I didn't respond until now but..I'm just very been very torn about this. I don't want to go" said Claudia.

"Um, ok?" said a slightly confused Kristy.

"I don't want to go to the reunion or Connecticut. Like, ever again!" blurted out Claudia.

Taken aback, Kristy couldn't help but ask, "What? Why?"

"I'm scared. I'm..scared to go back. I'm scared to.." drifted off Claudia before making her second confession "to see you."

"What?!" exclaimed Kristy. "What did I do?!"

Claudia sighed before saying, "you didn't really DO anything to me, Kristy."

"Then what the hell are you talking about, Claudia?!" yelled Kristy.

Claudia the confessed everything from start to finish, which took about 15 minutes of uninterrupted talking on her part and said lastly, "I feel like I have PTSD. I know you didn't give me cancer, Kristy. Honestly, you probably saved my life by doing it but the day you broke my toes was the day my life changed forever. It's hard to separate."

"Wow" sighed Kristy. "I am so sorry but God, I wish you had told me about all of this sooner."

"I know" said Claudia. "I should have been honest with you."

"I am so sorry" repeated Kristy before adding "I am so sorry that something involving me is making you feel this way. I don't want you to feel this way. Is there anything I can for you? Honestly? I'lI do anything I can to help you. You have to know that."

Claudia replied, "I know you would..but no, I don't think so."

With a more gentle tone of voice, Kristy asked, "Do you see a therapist, Claud?"

"Well, I used to but not for a few years now" replied Claudia.

"You shouldn't let this rule your life. Or prevent you from visiting your family. Lynn is 17 now, you know" said Kristy with a more stern tone. "You don't want to miss her graduation do you?"

"Of course not" said Claudia.

Kristy added "I don't have bad intentions here. Despite what you told me, I'm always here if you need me. Can you at least promise me that you'll talk to someone about this?"

Claudia agreed and said, "Yes, I need to. I'll give my therapist a call."

Kristy sighed and said "We're sure going to miss you at the reunion, girly but I am looking forward to the day when we can see each other again. Mary Anne and I miss you a lot."

"I'm sorry" said Claudia. "I miss you too."

"It's ok, Claud." replied Kristy. "You take care of yourself, ok?. Bye"

"Bye" said Claudia before hanging up. It was less than one minute before she burst into tears, burying her face in her hands and sobbing out loud, "what's wrong with me?" realizing that her boyfriend was right. She WAS being ridiculous. She had been afraid of Kristy for 5 years and after essentially telling her that it was all her "fault," she still was nothing but kind and understanding and just wanted to help her. It was a few minutes before she could calm down enough to grab her laptop and her purse all put them on the bed. A quick phone call to Stacey preceeded a little Internet searching and after a few click clicks, Claudia closed her laptop, took a deep breath and said to herself, "here goes nothing" and then picked up the phone and shot Kristy a text:

"You r an amazing woman, Kristy Thomas. Thank you for not getting mad at me. Ur right. I do need some help but I also need a place to stay on January 20th. You have room in your apartment for me? ;-)"

"Of course I do, Claud!" responded Kristy a few minutes later.

"Good. Cuz I'm coming!" Xoxo


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you think of this one?" asked Mary Anne as she held up a plain sleveless black dress up to herself, the ruffled dress hem hitting her mid-calf.

"Are you serious?" asked Kristy. "Come on. That's way too boring."

They had been browsing at Bellaire's Department Store for about an hour, Mary Anne having already tried on 3 dresses and Kristy was already exhausted from her softball game earlier that morning.

"Since when have I ever been a flashy dresser, Kristy? I'm a librarian" Mary Anne joked before adding "besides, you aren't wearing a dress."

"Yeah, well I'm a lesbian" Kristy joked back and tgen said "but hey, what do you call this?" as she held up a silver sequined tank top that she was planning to wear under the blazer of one of her work suits. "I'm still stepping out of my comfort zone for this and I know you can do the same." she said, while simultaneously scanning the racks before spotting something blue mixed in with all the black that caught her eye. Kristy pulled it out and immediately knew that the dress was perfect for Mary Anne. "Now THIS? This is your dress, my friend" said Kristy as she held up a navy blue dress with lacy cap sleeves and that came with a matching glittery navy blue belt, which gave the simple dress just a bit of personality. "It's your favorite color and.." she quickly checked the size before excitedly saying "It's a small! You gotta try this thing on now."

Mary Anne said "I've already tried on 3 and I'm getting burned out. Maybe I can just wear something I already have."

"Just do it" ordered Kristy.

"Oh, all right" sighed Mary Anne, already knowing that it was indeed her perfect reunion dress, but not really wanting to give her bossy best friend the satisfaction of picking it out until she made sure it looked nice on her. "Dress shopping on a Saturday afternoon with Kristy Thomas. Hell must be freezing over" Mary Anne said behind her as she closed the fitting room door.

That comment put a smirk on Kristy's face and she stepped outside the fitting room to wait for Mary Anne. She had only been waiting about 60 seconds when she heard a familiar voice to her right say, "Hey Kristy." Kristy turned her head and came to face to face with Cokie Mason, her former arch enemy but yet, the woman responsible for all this current excitement in her life. Kristy didn't want her to know that of course so she responded with a simple "Oh, hey." Cokie really hadn't changed much since high school, with her brown hair in the same style, although her fashion sense seemed to be quite toned down from her teenage years and she was sporting a dark green courdoroy jacket with a wool lining over a plain white t-shirt accompanied with distressed blue jeans and some simple black converse sneakers. She was still pretty and looked younger than 28, only with some slight dark circles under her eyes, which deemed fitting since she was now the mother of a two year old son.

Cokie then asked "How are you?"

"I'm good" replied Kristy with no emotion and not sure whether to continue disliking her or give her a hug for unintentionally planning a BSC reunion. Kristy chose the former but continued to chat with her and added "just shopping for something to wear to the reunion."

"Yeah, me too" replied Cokie. "Well, actually, I'm just going to wear a dress I already have so I'm just looking for some shoes. I'm kinda on a budget so I hope I can find a decent pair."

Kristy thought that must be odd for her, considering less than two years ago, Cokie was very wealthy and living in New York City, on Park Avenue no less. She prayed for Mary Anne to hurry up so she could wrap up this too pleasant for her liking conversation when Cokie said "I've actually been meaning to talk to you. I mean, I see you walk by the leasing offfice every morning."

Not knowing what else to say, Kristy asked "Do you like working there?" referring to Cokie's job as a receptionist for her office building's management company.

"Well, I've never really worked before but it's been almost seven months now and I think I've pretty much got it down" said Cokie, inadvertently referring to her learning disability, as her job was about as easy as it gets, only answering phones, making coffee and filing papers. At that moment, Mary Anne walked out of the fitting room asking "what do you think?" saving Kristy the awkwardness of responding to that. Kristy and Cokie turned around at the same time, both stunned by how Mary Anne looked in her dress. Even with her hair in a pony tail and her wearing loafers. "Wow. You look amazing!" exclaimed Kristy.

Not responding to Kristy and instead, shocked to see the person standing next to her, said "Cokie? Oh my gosh!"

"Hey, Mary Anne" replied Cokie who paused and then said "you look really pretty in that dress."

"Thanks" said Mary Anne. "Are you here dress shopping for the reunion too?"

"Just for shoes" replied Cokie, who was looking Mary Anne up and down before saying, "you know, I have some blue heels that are the exact same color as that belt. They are awesome, all blue and glittery. What size shoe do you wear?"

A little taken aback, Mary Anne replied, "Um, I'm a size 8."

"Really?" said an excited Cokie. "That's great cause so am I and they really would go perfectly with that dress. Would you like to borrow them?" she asked.

"Seriously?" asked Mary Anne.

"Oh yeah, for sure. I'm not going to wear them" and she turned to Kristy and asked "Can I give them to you on Monday? Maybe you can pick them up on the way to your office?"

An equally stunned Kristy said "I..guess so."

"Great" said Cokie. "Well, I better get back to shoe shopping. It was nice to see you guys."

"Likewise" replied Mary Anne.

As Cokie said "Bye" and started to walk away, Mary Anne said to Kristy, "well that was interesting."

"Uh, yeah I'll say. Was she actually being nice? Or did I just hallucinate?" asked Kristy.

Mary Anne laughed "No, that was real."

"Have you ever seen Cokie be anything other than a snobby nasty bitch?" Kristy asked.

"Not really but that was..kinda cool, wasn't it?" asked Mary Anne.

"Yeah, I guess it.." Kristy drifted off as she felt like she needed to do the right thing and ran after her, yelling, "Cokie, wait!"

Cokie turned around as Kristy ran up to her and stammered, "Cokie, I just..I..um, I just..want to thank you for putting this whole reunion together."

"Oh sure. Of course" replied Cokie.

"No, I really mean it. Stacey and Claudia are coming too and I haven't seen them in years. Actually, so is Dawn Schaefer from SMS. Do you remember her?" asked Kristy.

Cokie looked up and said slowly "Dawn..Schaefer" before looking back at Kristy and saying "from California?"

"She's my stepsister" chimed in Mary Anne, who had caught up to the both of them.

"Oh yeah, that's right" said Cokie.

"Kristy continued on, repeating herself, saying "I haven't seen them in years and if it weren't for this reunion, who knows how long we would have gone without seeing each other."

"It's really my pleasure." said Cokie. "I love throwing parties. I did it all the time when I was still married. I'm actually really good at it."

Not wanting Cokie to talk any further about her ex-husband, Kristy quickly changed the subject and said, "Well, we are all really looking forward to it."

"Me too. So..see you on Monday?" asked Cokie.

"Yep" said Kristy.

"Bye. Again" said Cokie and she walked away.

Mary Anne said to Kristy, "That was pretty awesome of you, Ms. Thomas."

"Well, she was just being so nice. What was I supposed to do?" said Kristy, adding "I don't think I've ever even seen her smile. I wonder what brought on this change in her."

Mary Anne said "Well, her husband's in jail for tax fraud, she's a single mom now, lost all her money, she's uneducated and she had to move back in with her parents in her late 20s. I think that would humble anyone, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose" replied Kristy.

Mary Anne then put her arm around Kristy's shoulder and said softly "Life is too short to hold on to a school grudge."

Kristy didn't say anything and instead just sighed, implying that Mary Anne was right.

"Now come on" said Mary Anne. "Let's buy these clothes and get out of here."

On the drive back to Mary Anne & Jackson's, they continued their conversation about the reunion, discussing details about the girls' arrival, with Mary Anne picking up Dawn at the airport and Stacey and Claudia flying in together and renting a car but both were staying with Kristy in her apartment, with a celebratory dinner planned for everyone that first night and then a brunch and spa day on the afternoon of the reunion.

"I'm so glad you were able to talk to Claudia" said Mary Anne.

Kristy replied "Me too. I mean, I only talked to her for 20 minutes or so but man, it was intense from the start."

"I'll bet" said Mary Anne. "It had to be hard for her to come clean about all that."

"I don't doubt it but it really broke my heart to hear all of it, knowing it was because of me. Well, sorta" said Kristy.

Mary Anne said "Well, yeah but not really. Cancer is very traumatic and I'm sure she just needed a scapegoat to cope with all of it. Charlotte has opened up to me a little bit about her mom and how the cancer affected her emotionally and it's so sad."

Kristy remained silent, remembering Dr. Johanson, before asking Mary Anne, "did you ever tell Stacey that you work with her?"

"I've been meaning to" said Mary Anne "but I don't really feel like it's my place."

"You really should. I'm sure Stacey will want to see her" said Kristy.

Mary Anne said "Yeah, you're probably right. Give me a few minutes?"

"Yeah sure." Kristy drove the rest of the way back to Mary Anne's house in silenceas Mary Anne typed out a long text to Stacey, with her finishing up just as they arrived at her house.

"All right, my dear" said Kristy.

"Thanks for helping me find that dress, Kris." said Mary Anne.

"Any time. Except for..never again?" Kristy jokingly asked.

Mary Anne laughed and said "Deal!" as she got out of Kristy's car, holding the garment bag with her new dress inside.

Making sure Mary Anne was inside her house, she drove off to her apartment and it wasn't long before she was walkin through the front door into her spotless two bedroom apartment which was decorated pretty neutral, with tan painted walls adorned with tons of framed photos of her friends, famil and adventures and also a few art pieces with similar color schemes that she had actually found at Home Goods. Her L-shaped couch was chocolate brown with a few patterned throw pillows and it all complimented her other furniture, all dark wood. Her apartment was classy, simple and cohesive, with her bedroom being no exception with a tan tufted headboard attached to her plush king mattress and dark brown comforter. Somewhat plain but it was certainly a lot more feminine than her bedroom growing up.

She walked past her bedroom and into her 2nd bedroom, also her office, pseudo gym with a treadmill in the corner and storage room, as it had a walk in closet. She went straight to the closet and opened it up. Wood shelves, which she installed herself, lined the entire closet with box after box sitting on top of them. Always neat and organized, each box was labeled with it's content. She spent a few minutes pulling boxes out and setting them on the floor before finding what she was looking for. One box labeled SMS and one labeled SHS. She placed the box from SMS on the floor and sat down right next to it, taking the lid off. Inside, it was packed to the top with mementos from their middle school days. A small photo album laid on top of the 6th, 7th and 8th grade yearbooks, which she took out of the box and placed on the floor next to revealing the Peter Pan costume she wore for the school play. The box was filled with so many things. Hers, Dawn's and Claudia's boarding passes from the cruise to Florida, as well as their Disney World tickets, a bag of confetti from her mother's wedding to Watson and her now paper thin Kristy's Krushers uniform to name a few but she directed her attention to the photo album and flipped through page after page of her fun times with her friends. Pictures of them at Disneyworld, one with her and all the babysitters with her adopted sister Emily-Michelle shortly after they brought her home, a pic of them goofing around in their hotel room when they got snowed in at Leicester Lodge in Vermont, and countless others of course, with the album concluding with several pictures of them at their 8th grade graduation. She made a mental note to try to contact Mallory and to try to see if Jessi is on Facebook she can see how the junor officers of the club were doing. After putting away the photo album and yearbooks, she started going through the SHS box, also filled to the brim with memories. Yearbooks and a photo album on top like the other one, a zip lock baggie holding the corsage that Bart gave her when they attended junior prom together and another bagged corsage from her then-boyfriend Alan Gray, from the senior prom along with the formal picture they had taken together, with her looking incredibly awkward in her formal wear and the fact that she actually had a boyfriend made her laugh a bit and say to herself "who was I kidding?" but still recalled how much fun her and all the girls had at both dances. She came across her graduation cap and tassle and a framed photo of all the girls in 11th grade sitting on Claudia's bed, all with red and puffy eyes on the day they held their final meeting of the BSC.

Everything from the bag of confetti to that graduation cap meant something to Kristy. It represented a memory. A happy memory, otherwise she wouldn't have kept it. Kristy has tons of friends, inside and outside of work and on her softball team and was in no means a creepy hoarder holding on to her childhood memories. All the girls contributed things to these memory boxes before they all left for college. They remained in Claudia's closet for years before her parents decided to turn the BSC headquarters into a guest room and Kristy gladly took possession of the boxes.

She then realized that being the president of the BSC shaped everything about her. The way she carried herself, the way she managed the HR department and even in her personal life, when she actually felt like going on a date and in so many other ways which she felt contributed to her wonderful life she's currently leading. Sure, tons of kids are in clubs growing up but the BSC was different. It was a club, a business and a sisterhood, for which she was eternally greatful.

Never much of a crier, Kristy was only a bit misty eyed as she put all the contents back in the box. As she was putting the top back on, her eye caught what was scrawled on the inside of the box lid.

"Friends Forever"

She smiled and said to herself. "Always."


	8. Chapter 8

It was Friday afternoon, Stacey having taken the day off from work to fly back east, and she was taking a look at her backside in the mirror in her bedroom, Stacey bent over to give her short reunion dress the "test" to make sure it wasn't TOO short. Stacey declared it passed, and then she turned around to check out the front. Her long sleeved emerald green sequined mini dress had a vneck and the bottom of the dress reached a little past mid thigh length, showing off her legs but still looking classy. She thought she should flaunt it before she turned into a big fat pregnant lady again and dressing that way certainly wasn't something she could ever really do at the conservative catholic school she taught at. She turned to the side and while she felt a little bloated, her now 11 week old fetus wasn't even remotely obvious. She decided to put in a new CGM sensor in the back of her arm when she got to Connecticut, and was going to hook her insulin pump to her bra, hoping the shiny sequins would camouflage the small bulges that both devices created under her fitted dress. She turned to her Dave, her boyfriend who had also taken the day off and had spent the night with Stacey, was relaxing on her bed watching TV which he can only do when Ava was already with her Dad, and she asked, "so, what do you think?"

"Whoa" he replied. "Well, it's a good thing you're already pregnant."

Interpreting that very innapropiate compliment as a "yes you look nice" Stacey then said "Alright. Now I gotta figure out some jewelry" and walked into the adjoining bathroom to pick out some accessories that would compliment her dress. It didn't take long before she settled on a pair of cubic zirconia dangling drop bar earrings, and a simple long silver lariat necklace with a similar CZ bar pendant. She planned to wear the black Louboutin stilettos Dave had bought her, which were already packed away in her suitcase.. Even though she sparkled from head to toe and looked like a million bucks, her whole outfit, including the jewelry cost her about 60 bucks, her shimmering dress being a absolute steal at H&M for 35 dollars and Stacey was still convinced it was tagged wrong. The only real piece of jewelry she had on was a brand new princess cut diamond set in white gold that was on her left ring finger. Those nerves Stacey had about her lunch with David were long forgotten as he had already had a big plan for her that day. The baby "bomshell" news turned out to be just icing on the cake for him and he couldn't have been happier, responding to to her news with the ring, already in his pocket. While he planned to ask her on the bridge at the Grove, with fountains spouting up and the romantic scenery, he became so anxious to propose that just a few minutes after she told him she was pregnant, he whipped out the ring right at the table in the restaurant. Not the romantic proposal he intended but Stacey wouldn't have had it any other way and accepted his proposal without hesitation. The only downside to her agreeing to marry him was that Stacey knew she would have to quit the job she loved after the school year was over, maybe even sooner if she couldn't hide her baby bump and people started asking questions. Stacey also didn't want to leave the home she shared with Ava since she was a baby and she felt like the place was a tribute to her father, as her inheritance allowed her to buy the home and was filled with a bunch of his furniture and possesions, which cost hundreds of dollars to ship across the country.

However, the reality was that David has more money than her and once she sells her home, together they can buy a really nice house to start their new life together with Ava (with the blessing of Ava's father, thank goodness) and their new baby. He promised that all of her father's things will have a place in the new home they chose and she took her new fiancée's words to heart when she voiced her concerns to him. "Life is all about adjustments."

After going back to her bedroom and changing into a black t-shirt, dark blue denim skinny jeans and zipped up her black heeled ankle boots, she packed up the jewelry in their cases and put them in her open suitcase sitting on the bed, silently hoping and praying that her luggage won't get lost and then put her reunion dress back on the hanger before placing it inside a garment bag and zipped it up, planning to make that her carry on item. She turned to Dave and asked, "are you ready?"

He replied, "I'm waiting on you. I just need to put my shoes on."

Stacey said "why don't you go ahead and do that, then? I'm going to text Claudia real quick."

Her text to Claudia read: "We r leaving in a few minutes. U ready?"

"Yes. All packed up n wating" was the reply from Claudia with her typical misspelling that Stacey had become accustomed to.

"Ok, she's good" Stacey said to Dave.

"Ok." he replied as he picked up her suitcase and walked outside to his car to put it in the trunk. Stacey followed, holding her purse and the garment bag, which she laid down on top of the suitcase, closed the trunk and sat down in the passenger seat of his 4 door silver Mazda 3 wagon. Dave walked back into the house and emerged a few minutes later, raising his eyebrows at Stacey and holding a heavy double breasted off-white jacket and a pair of wool lined black leather gloves. He placed them in the trunk, intending to fold them and put them in Stacey's suitcase when they got to Claudia's. He got in the driver's seat and said to Stacey "I think you've been in California a little too long, huh?"

"I guess so" said the East Coat born and bred Stacey, shaking her head at herself.

Dave then said to her. "Are you hungry all, hon?"

"No, I'm good" she said.

"Did you bring your glucose tabs?" he asked.

"Ugh, no" replied Stacey "I left them in the bathroom."

"Sta-CEY" he said sternly, then asking "did you pack any snacks?"

"No babe. I forgot" said Stacey.

With the same stern voice he said, "You have to be responsible, Stace. That's my baby you're carrying."

"Sorry. I'm just a little scatterbrained right now" said Stacey, chalking up her absent mindedness to the excitement of the reunion combined with pregnancy brain. David went back into the house for a few more minutes and came back out with her bottle of glucose tabs and a pack of graham crackers, sitting back in the driver's seat, handing her both and ordered, "put these in your purse." Seeing he was a little annoyed, she didn't say anything and did what he asked.

They left Stacey's house close to 3:30 but between the drive to Beverly Hills to get Claudia, them stopping to grab a snack to tide them over until dinner, then back to LAX, Stacey and David saying a mushy newly engaged-couple type goodbye that took WAY too long for Claudia's liking, checking in their luggage, waiting in line, going through the security checkpoints, waiting in more lines, walking to their gate, a good few hours had passed and it was almost 7:00pm, but with their overnight flight not leaving until 9:15, Stacey and Claudia had a few hours to kill so they decided to have some dinner and drinks at one of the bars near their gate. After ordering a plate of nachos to share and a salad each for themselves, the male bartender asked "Any drinks for you ladies?"

Stacey thought for a minute before replying "I'll just have some soda water with a splash of cranberry juice."

"You sure?" asked the bartender, obviously wanting to make a few more bucks off an alcoholic drink. "Nothing to calm your nerves before your flight?"

"She's pregnant" interjected Claudia, prompting the bartender to say "Oh, I'm so sorry. Cranberry and soda water. Sounds good" he said before turning to Claudia and asking "and for you, ma'am?

Taking a minute to think, just as Stacey did, she answered "Can you make me a pickle back?"

"Yes, absolutely!" he said as he walked away to start the drinks. Claudia turned to Stacey, who smiled at her, knowing the significance of her ordering that drink and looked at it a symbol of her beginning the process of moving on, finally returning home and to finding some closure with her traumatic cancer experience and being able to see Kristy again.

"Good choice, Claud" said Stacey. "I am so proud of you for putting your fears aside to go to the reunion, but are you sure you'll be able to handle this?"

"Well, I've met with my therapist 3 times since my phone call with Kristy and she's definitely calmed my nerves a bit and she taught me some coping techniques, just in case seeing Kristy or even seeing Stoneybrook or snow causes a panic attack."

"That's really great, Claud" said Stacey, adding "but I think it will be easier than you think. Kristy is your friend, and she has been for a very long time."

"I know. There is a lot of history there" replied Claudia.

Stacey continued on, saying "that woman saved your life, Claud. I mean, I've never really wanted to bring it up with you, but I've always been so greatful to Kristy because if she hadn't broken your foot when she did.." her voice starting to crack as she got a little teary eyed and said "you may not be here right now."

Claudia, now teary eyed as well, replied "I never used to think of it like that but Frankie brought that to my attention recently and my therapist agreed. So do I. Finally."

At that moment, their drinks arrived and Claudia immediately raised her glass, Stacey then doing the same and trying to come up with a toast, said "to..?"

"To..moving on?" suggested Claudia.

"To moving on" said Stacey, adding "and to these East Coast gals finally going home."

"To Connecticut" said Claudia "and to Stoneybrook."

"To friendship" Stacey said.

Claudia replied with one final toast, "To..The Baby-Sitters Club."

"Yes" said Stacey. "To the Baby-Sitters Club!" and "CLINK!" went their glasses .


	9. Chapter 9

Mary Anne pulled her long brown hair, still damp from her shower into a pony tail. It was about 11:30am and she needed to head out to pick up Dawn at her dad and Sharon's house and then they were meeting Kristy, Claudia and Stacey for lunch in Stamford at The Elm Street Diner before heading over to the nearby Sol Beauty Salon for an afternoon of pampering, followed by all of them getting their hair and makeup professionally done, which was all Kristy's treat and while Mary Anne knew it would cost her a pretty penny, Kristy still insisted. The plan was then to go back to Kristy's apartment to hang out, get dressed and then take two cars to the S Hotel.

She walked downstairs to her finished kitchen to find her husband Jackson sitting at the table reading a book and drinking a cup of coffee. Their new kitchen looked amazing and she was so happy with the results. White cabinets with black hardware, dark gray quartz countertops and a bay window over the sink. An all new chrome stove, fridge and dishwasher made the kitchen look polished and sleek with various light and dark green accents, like hand towels and counter appliances and with the walls painted a very light green as well. Green certainly wasn't her or Jackson's favorite color but she had taken Dawn's decorating advice that having a green kitchen subconsiously made guests hungry, which she thought was silly but since they both like to cook and to have people over for dinner, far be it for them to question the professional so they did it. While they planned on doing their staircase next, wanting to strip up the carpet and replace it with dark wooden steps and to put in a matching dark curved banister, that was going to be put on hold for a while because the kitchen cost a lot more than anticipated. Instead, they were going to focus on the downstairs guest bathroom next and attempt to do as much work as they could themselves and were currently doing careful research about how to re-tile a shower.

"Hey honey. Party a little too hard with your girls last night?" asked Jackson.

"Me? Oh, yeah, you know how much of a party animal I am" said Mary Anne sarcastically, adding "me and my one glass of wine I couldn't even finish."

She looked at her husband, who was pretty nondescript but still had a very studious look to him. Glasses, with a close cropped haircut and while he was not heavy, he was definitely not in shape either as he really wasn't big on exercise and he dressed very professionally and conservatively, as did Mary Anne, who that day was wearing tan pencil slacks with a white tailored button up blouse with plain white sneakers and no jewelry, aside from her wedding and engagemnt ring, which was a simple and tiny single princess cut diamond with a gold band and plain gold matching wedding ring. From a physical standpoint, he was a perfect match for Mary Anne but as Kristy got to know him while they were co-workers, she realized he was her perfect match emotionally too. They liked the same type of movies and loved books, had similar interests and were both sensitive, smart and kind and it was only about a month between Kristy telling him, "you should meet my best friend" and Mary Anne confiding in her "I met the man I'm going to marry" although they didn't even kiss until 9 months into the relationship and both losing their virginity to each other on their wedding night. Kristy added introducing him and Mary Anne to her long list of great ideas.

"Did you at least have have fun?" he asked.

"Oh my gosh, Jack. It felt like a dream" she said as she sat down at the table with him. She rambled on and on, telling him about all the details from the previous night, filled with hugs, what seemed like an endless amount of tears and hours of reminiscing with each other about a lifetime of memories and friendship.

"How's Dawn doing" he asked, as she was the only other member of the BSC that he had met.

"She's doing great. She's finally showing and she looks amazing. Truly glowing" answered Mary Anne.

"I can't wait to see her tonight." he said, adding "I'm really looking forward to meeting Claudia and Stacey too."

"Oh yeah, and Stacey's pregnant too!" Mary Anne said excitedly.

"Really?" That's great. Is she..married?" asked her traditional husband.

"Well no, not yet but she's getting married soon. Later this year, before she has her baby."

"Oookaay" he said, changing the subject and asking "how's Claudia?"

Mary Anne said "she seems like she's doing well."

He asked "Did everything go ok with her and Kristy?"

"It did, thank goodness. They sat next to each other at dinner and got along great." She laughed as she added "and they have the exact same haircut too!"

"Oh, how funny." he said. Mary Anne then looked at her phone and said, "Oh shoot. I gotta go get Dawn."

He replied "Oh yeah. Get outta here."

Mary Anne hurriedly grabbed her keys, purse, and reunion dress while continuing her conversation with her husband and saying "Ok, so you are going to pick up Ben and park at the hotel?

"Yes. I have the parking pass. I'll call you when we get there."

"Sounds good" said Mary Anne, walking towards him and leaning in for a kiss. "I love you. Bye ."

"Love you too, sweetie" as she walked out and closed the door. She drove her white Nissan Sentra the less than 10 minute drive to the Spier's condo, which Richard and Sharon had downsized to once Mary Anne moved out for college. Once she arrived, she let herself in and saw Dawn and Ben, both on the couch in the sunken living room watching TV. Mary Anne joked and said, "aww..you guys look like a brochure at the obgyn" making Dawn and Ben laugh before she asked "is my Dad home?"

"Sorry. He went shopping with my mom." replied Dawn.

Maty Anne said "Alright. Well come on, Dawn. We're running late. Beauty calls Ben, I'll see you at the party."

Ben replied "Yep. See ya."

As they walked outside to the car, Mary Anne said to Dawn "you really are glowing, sis. Your bump looks so adorable."

"It really came out of nowhere but I love it! I've been thin my whole life and now that I'm fat, I've never been happier!" exclaimed Dawn.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Kristy, Claudia and Stacey were already at a table drinking coffee. More warm hugs greeted them, much like the night before. After a while of more reminiscing, laughing and yummy food, Kristy paid the bill and asked, "Alright, are you ladies ready for a beauty day?"

"Always!" chimed in Stacey.

"Awesome" she said, and they made the few minute trek to Sol Beauty Salon. Kristy walked up to the reception desk and said "The Thomas party is here."

"Perfect!" said the blonde and perky receptionist and she began escorting each girl to a station, ending with Stacey and Mary Anne, who were on the other side of the salon and away from the other girls. While bummed they weren't all sitting together, Stacey linked arms with Mary Anne and said, "Oh well. Let's go get pretty."

Both deciding to start with facials, Mary Anne and Stacey continued their conversation and Mary Anne decided to bite the bullet, nervously asking Stacey "sooo did you talk to Charlotte?"

"Oh, of course!" Stacey exclaimed. "I've never lost contact with Charlotte."

"Oh, ok. I didn't know" said Mary Anne. "She's a very private person."

"Oh yes, I know" said Stacey, adding "I'm having lunch with her and Mr. Johannsen tomorrow, actually."

"That's wonderful!" said Mary Anne.

After what seemed like hours of facials, mani pedis and massages, it was time for hair and makeup, which took about another hour.

"Are you ready?" asked the hairstylist.

"Yes" replied Mary Anne as the lady turned her around to look in the mirror and Mary Anne was shocked at her appearance. Her hair was curled and she had a face covered with foundation, blush and a bold and dark smokey eye, which the esthetician said would compliment her dark blue dress. Everyone else looked equally amazing, with Dawn sporting a more natural makeup and hair and everyone else in stunning bold makeup and hairstyles.

After concluding their spa day, they all drove back to Kristy's house to relax and eat and drink before getting dressed. Once there, they all parked themselves on Kristy's huge couch, chatting, laughing, snacking on a fruit and cheese plate Kristy brought out and all sipped on glasses of Rosé while Stacey and Dawn enjoyed some sparkling apple cider. Once 7:00pm rolled around, Kristy announced, "All right, ladies. It's time to get dressed!" adding "and since I'm the president of the BSC, I'm going first!" and disappeared inside her bedroom before anyone can dispute it, emerging only a few minutes later wearing a black suit with the sparkly tank top she bought last weekend. She was wearing simple diamond stud earrings and a necklace with a teardrop diamond pendant, which Mary Anne knew were real because Watson had bought those for Kristy when she graduated college. She completed the look with some black heels that looked like a suede material. Her angled bob teased in the back, giving her short hair volume. Always thinking of her bestie as a tomboy, Mary Anne was stunned by how pretty she looked and said, "You look amazing, Kris" and all of the other girls agreed. Kristy then said "Ok. Dawn, why don't you go next?"

"Ok" she said. "See you in a bit."

It took Dawn about 10 minutes to get herself together before she emerged from the room wearing a sleveless light blue flowy empire waist dress, with silver embellishments around the waist and sleeves and paired that with some silver gladiator sandals, although they weren't really visible under the long dress and no jewelry, which it really didn't even need. Claudia put both hands on the sides of her face and shrieked, "Oh my God, Dawn! You look like a Greek Goddess!"

"You really do" added Stacey.

"Thanks, girls. I LOVE this dress!" said Dawn, adding "and I found it at the maternity store in the mall. Can you believe that?"

Kristy said, "Alright, pregnant ladies first, I guess. Stace, get in there."

Stacey answered "Yes maam" and when she walked out of the bedroom a few minutes later, she came out looking like a supermodel in her tight and sparkly dress, dark purple smokey eyes, bold burgundy lips and loose wavy hair and was greeted with a "wooooo.." from all the girls simultaneously. Kristy laughed and said "You are so shiny! Seriously though, you look stunning and that little nugget isn't showing at all."

Stacey said "thanks, Kris. This is probably my last chance to dress up like this for a while so I might as well go all out."

'"Well, you did good" proclaimed Kristy, who then turned to Claudia and said "your turn."

Somehow, Claudia managed to get dressed and all decked out in just a few minutes and she came out wearing an amazing strapless silk wrap dress, with draped black fabric at the waist and a unique striped pattern in various shades of dark blue, white and gray that almost looked like paint splatters. She was wearing a bunch of black and blue beaded bracelets and several long shiny beaded necklaces in various sizes and lengths that all complimented her dress and she wore the same dark blue flats she had worn the day she spoke to Kristy. The stylist had also somehow managed to pin Claudia's hair into an updo. Mary Anne couldn't help herself and shouted "Oh my lord, Claud! Where did you get that dress?!"

Claudia replied "Actually, I had it made. Ricardo's wife is a fashion designer, you know. I painted this pattern, she had it printed on this silk and she made it for me in 2 days. How cool is that?" as she opened her arms and twirled around.

"It's pretty dang cool, Claudia." said Dawn.

"Pretty..fresh" joked Stacey.

Claudia laughed and asked "but the real question is, is it DIBBLE?"

All of the girls burst out laughing, with Kristy saying, "oh, its dibbly fresh, Claud!"

Mary Anne realized she was the last one left and said "Alright. Here goes nothing" as she walked in and closed the door. Laying on the bed were 3 empty and unzipped garment bags, two open and empty shoe boxes and one closed one. She slowly got dressed, putting on sheer panty hose a few shades darker than her own skin and then slipped on her dress. Zipping up the back and then sliding the belt around her waist, she turned around to look in the mirror and knew that dress was the right choice. She reached into the closed shoebox and pulled out the sparkly blue shoes, which made her 3 inches taller and indeed matched the belt exactly. She looked like a different person but she was very happy with how everything turned out. She walked out to a hushed crowd.

"I knew it!" shouted Kristy.

"Knew what?" asked Mary Anne.

"I knew that was your perfect dress."

Dawn added "sis, you look so pretty. Jackson is going to DIE when he sees you."

Look at those shoes" said Stacey. "Hey, can you show me the bottom?"

Mary Anne answered "Um, sure.." as she turned and lifted up her foot, showing a bright red sole. "Louboutins!" shrieked Stacey. "Where in the world did you get Louboutins?!" before taking a small sip of cider.

"Cokie Mason let me borrow these" she said, making Stacey then cough and spit out her cider and immediately say "Oh my God, I'm so sorry Kristy!" Kristy just laughed and waved her hand at Stacey, saying "It's ok."

A still coughing Stacey turned to Mary Anne and asked "come again?"

"Yeah. She works in Kristy's office building. And she's nice now."

"Shut up! exclaimed Claudia.

"I swear it. Ask Kristy" said Mary Anne.

"Hard to believe, but true. I had lunch with her a few days ago." said Kristy. "This reunion is creating all sorts of miracles, huh?"

"I'll say" said Claudia as she looked at Kristy and smiled.

Kristy smiled back before saying, "Alright. Enough of this. It's time!"

Everyone put their drinks down and Mary Anne said to Kristy, "Ok, idea queen. how do you want to work this?"

Kristy asked, "Is everyone planning on drinking tonight?"

"I'll have a little something" said Mary Anne.

"Me too" said Claudia.

"Ok, Stacey and Dawn, you take my car. It's too small for all of us and I don't want anyone drunk in my car. The three of us will take Uber. We can ride home with the boys. Jackson has an SUV.

"Still full of great ideas, I see" said Stacey.

It didn't take long for them to get there, with Kristy only living a few minutes away from the S Hotel and once they were out of the cars, met up with each other in the lobby. Once they walked in, they immediately saw a sign that said "SHS REUNION" with an arrow pointing to the left. The girls walked down the hallway and immediately saw a long banquet table next to a set of double doors and with someone sitting behind it. Once they got close enough, Mary Anne saw that it was Grace Blume, with Mary Anne and Kristy looking at each other at the same time and Kristy rolling her eyes and mouthing "oh, great."

"Hey" was all Kristy managed to say to her when they reached the table.

Without even looking up she asked "Name?"

She replied "Kristy Thomas" prompting Gracie to look up and say, "Well I'll be damned. Look at you!"

"Um..yeah" said Kristy, with Grace adding "You look like a girl now!"

Kristy brushed off the rude comment and realized that while Cokie has changed, it didn't seem like Grace had.

Grace then looked over at Mary Anne before her eyes scanned all of them up and down and she said, "Wow! The Baby-Sitters Club, back together again?!" and burst out laughing.

Still being the bigger person, Kristy said "Yeah. Back and better than ever!"

"Well.." she sighed. "You guys look great" as she started scanning through all the placecards and guest passes and doling them out to each girl. "Ok ladies. Have fun."

They all walked away, not saying goodbye and Stacey adding "rude much? Jeez."

"Forget her" said Kristy as they approached the closed double doors, then asked "Everybody ready?"

"Yes" replied Dawn.

"More than ready!" exclaimed Claudia.

"I can't wait!" shouted Stacey.

Kristy then looked at Mary Anne with raised eyebrows and said "ahem?"

After all that had happened over the last few months, everything had finally come to fruition. They were all together again like old times and the moment all of them had been waiting for was finally here and excitement began building up inside Mary Anne, with her excitedly blurting out, "This it it!"

Kristy then kicked the door open with her heeled shoe and said "All right, BSC. LET'S DO THIS!"


	10. Chapter 10

The music of their teen years blared out of the door and they walked into what looked like a winter wonderland. Silvery and sparkly snowflake centerpieces with accents of blue and gold, which were the SHS school colors. Beautiful white glittery tablecloths with blue and gold confetti sprinkled atop what looked to be about 30 tables scattered throughout the ballroom with place settings and name cards. The light wooden dance floor was in front of a tiny stage with a few steps on either side and looked portable so it was clearly brought in for the occasion. A single microphone sat in the middle of it with large speakers on each side of the stage. The ballroom itself was gorgeous on its own but Cokie's decorations made it look spectacular. Kristy made a point to stop Cokie to tell her what a wonderful job she did. Kristy yelled to the girls over the music, "I'm gonna go walk around!" "Ok" mouthed Mary Anne.

Kristy casually strolled over to the bar area to order a drink. As she waited for it, she heard a loud "Hey you!" as she felt a simultaneous tap on her shoulder. She turned around to face Abby Stevenson, the former alternate officer of the Babysitter's Club and her old neighbor. Kristy remembered Abby's distinctive dark brown and tight curly hair but that night, her hair was blown out straight and was full of golden blonde highlights. She looked stunning in a simple black halter dress and some square diamond earrings and a matching necklace. A bewildered Kristy shouted, "Abby! Holy crap! Look at you!" and she gave her a big hug before asking, "How are you?!"

With a big smile, Abby replied "I'm good, I'm good. How about you?" "I'm doing great" said Kristy. "I still live here in Stoneybrook and I work at an insurance company just a few minutes away from here, actually."

"Nice" said Abby, who then asked "So, are you married? Kids?" Kristy responded, "No and no. Happily single" and not wanting to get further into her personal life or discuss her sexual orientation, quickly asked Abby "and how about you?"

"Oh yes. I've been married 6 years. I got married right out of college and I have 3 kids" said Abby.

"Whaat?" Kristy exclaimed. "How did you have time to have 3?!"

Abby replied "Well, I had twins."

"Oh, ok" said Kristy to Abby before she continued on. "My daughter, Kelly is 4 and my boys, Zack and David are 2."

"Congrats. That's wonderful. You don't live locally do you?" Kristy asked. "I mean, I never see you."

Abby said. "Oh no. I live in Alabama now."

"Say what?" asked a surprised Kristy.

"Yep. Afraid so. A Jewish girl from Long Island in the heart of dixie."

Kristy asked, "How in the world did you end up there?" She replied. "My husband is from Alabama but we met at NYU. After graduation, he went back home and took a job with the State of Alabama. He proposed to me about a month after he went back, I said yes, packed my bag and the rest is history. I'll never get used to it but I sure love that man" she said. Then she added "He still works for the state so we can't really live anywhere else."

Kristy asked "What do you do?"

"I'm actually a photographer. I do a lot of southern weddings, debutante balls..and my husband pulled some strings so I'm the official photographer for any state government event" said Abby.

Kristy said "That's too cool. Hey, I gotta ask. Do your kids have little southern accents?"

Abby burst out laughing and said "Yes! Totally!" as she sarcastically rolled her eyes.

Kristy told her, "Hey, all the girls are here. Dawn came from Cali too. Come on!" ask she grabbed her arm and dragged her to the table where the BSC was sitting. Luckily they were all still there. They all shared a hug and Abby sat down at the table while they all shared updates about their lives. Mary Anne asked "Hey, is Anna here?" referring to Abby's twin sister.

"Oh yeah, she's around" Abby replied. "She works in Japan as an investment banker." Then adding "American company though."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Mary Anne, as equally shocked reactions came from the rest of the ladies before Kristy then remembered that she never got her drink so she stood up and said "I'll be right back, girls."

She made her way through the crowd that had now formed in the ballroom before getting back to the bar. As she was handed her martini, another familiar face greeted her as she turned around. She sighed and said "Alan Gray.." He was easy to recognize although he looked a little different, having gained a bit of weight and looked a bit too weathered for 28.

"Hey Kris!" he shouted over the music. "Wow. You look pretty."

"Uh..thanks" she said, really not wanting to talk to her obnoxious ex-boyfriend but still trying to be polite, asked him "How are you?"

He said "I'm doing ok. I live in Hollywood."

"Jeez" thought Kristy to herself. "Does everyone live in California now?" before asking him "and what do you do out there?"

"Well, I do stand up comedy."

"Of course" Kristy again thought to herself before Alan added "but it doesn't always pay the bills so I bartend too."

That explained a bit why Alan looked a little beat up, Kristy figuring he probably drank a lot. It was barely another 10 seconds before Alan put his arm around Kristy and whispered in her ear "you know, I have a room in this hotel. You wanna check it out?"

"Seriously, Alan?" Kristy angrily asked before slipping his arm off her.

"Yeah, why not? You look really hot" replied Alan.

No longer feeling the need to be nice or just blurt out that she's gay, said "well, you don't. So no thank you."

Not even taken aback, Alan asked "Is Claudia here, then?"

"Unbelievable" thought Kristy and she said "I don't know..but take care, Alan" and walked away.

"Eww eww EWW!" said Kristy to herself as she walked back to the table. She noticed Claudia and Dawn were both gone as she sat with Mary Anne, Stacey and Mary Anne and Dawn's husband's who had now arrived. "Hey boys" said Kristy. "Where did Dawn go?"

Ben replied, "She's just in the bathroom."

"Ok" said Kristy. "How about Claud?"

"She went to get a drink" said Stacey.

Kristy said "Oh my gosh, you guys. I just saw Alan Gray."

"Ew" said Stacey as she rolled her eyes.

Kristy said "that's not even the worst part. He asked me to go back to his hotel room!" Which made all the ladies at the table crack up before Stacey asked "Where did you see him?"

"At the bar. He looks like he drinks a lot now too" replied Kristy, adding "he's all disheveled and bloated-" Stacey cut Kristy off, standing up, laughing and then shouting "Ahhh! Claudia is at the bar. I gotta go rescue her!"and she then disappeared into the crowd, squeezing her way past many people, most of whom she really didn't recognize. Almost to the bar, she finally saw a face she knew. Her ex-boyfriend Robert Brewster, who looked just as handsome as he was in high school. She quickly pushed that fact out of her mind and mustered out, "Oh. Hey Robert."

He said with much more enthusiasm " Stacey! Wow. I can't believe you're here. You look great! What a great dress!

"Thank you" she replied, subtly eyeing him up and down in his nice suit and said, "You too."

He then very gently slipped his arm around her upper waist as he led her away from the crowd. Once off to the side, he asked, "How are you doing, Stace?"

"I'm doing fine, Robert." she replied, feeling super awkward. "So what's your deal?"

"Well, I live in Colorado now" he said. "I went to school in Boulder and I just decided to stay. It's gorgeous."

"Yeah, I'll bet. What do you do these days?" asked Stacey.

"I teach high school science" he said, adding "and I'm also the varsity football coach."

Stacey laughed and said "I'm a teacher too. 11th and 12th grade calculus."

"Oh, how funny" he said. Before she could stop herself, Stacey blurted out. "Are you married?"

Robert replied, almost in a hesitant way, said. "Yeah. I married Andie." Stacey cringed a little inside as she remembered Andie Gentile. Her former friend who stole Robert from her in 8th grade. After Stacey and Robert got back together from 10th grade to 12th grade, Andie managed to snatch him away again. Obviously that time it was for good. Robert, probably sensing her vibe said, "she isn't here. She stayed home with the kids." Relieved she wouldn't have to see her, Stacey asked, "How many kids?"

"Two" he replied. "A boy and a girl. Mason is 3 and Sienna is 5 months."

"Ugh." Thought Stacey who disliked both of those names but said to Robert "Well, congratulations."

"..and how about you?" he asked. "Still in California?"

She replied "Yes. I never left. I have a 4 year old daughter from my previous relationship but I'm engaged now."

"That's great, Stacey" he said.

Stacey really didn't have much else to say to Robert, other than telling him she was pregnant but she didn't feel like that was any of his business so she decided to end their slightly awkward conversation with, "Well, it was great to see you but I gotta go get Claudia-" before Claudia popped up right behind Robert and jokingly asking "Get me what?!"

Robert turned around and said, "Hey Claudia! Come here!" as he opened up his arms for a hug."

"Hey you" she said, hugging him back, which didn't bother Stacey as they were friends in high school too.

After a really brief chat between those two, Stacey interjected "Ok, well we're going to go mingle. It was nice seeing you, Robert."

"You too" he said before putting his hand on the side of her shoulder for a few seconds, then giving her a gentle hug and whispering to her "I do miss you, Stace. I'm so sorry." He then pulled away and turned to Claudia and said "Great to see you too, Claudia. Take care."

After he walked away, Claudia turned to Stacey and asked "Ok, WHAT did he just say to you?"

" He..apologized." replied a dumbfounded Stacey.

"Good!" proclaimed Claudia, who then joked "he probably hates his life with Andie anyway."

Stacey laughed and said "yeah, probably."

"She's probably just as miserable being married to that cheater too" added Claudia, who then said "So..gross Alan Gray just hit on me at the bar."

Stacey said "Ha! I figured. He did the same thing to Kristy. I was coming to save you!"

Claudia linked arms with Stacey and asked "wanna go try to find some decent people to talk to now?"

"Good idea" said Stacey as they began to mingle with the crowd, eventually running into and having decent conversations with both Trevor Sandbourne and Austin Bentley. Claudia also had a wonderful chat with Emily Bernstein from the middle school and high school newspaper, who gave Claudia a personals column and who, aside from her Grandmother Mimi, was one of the first people who made Claudia realize she wasn't as dumb as she thought. Claudia was pleased to find out that Emily had realized her journalism dream and was a columnist for a local newspaper in Virginia, where she now lived.

Eventually, all the BSC girls caught back up with each other, sitting down and eating dinner once it was served. The night turned into a complete whirlwind, filled with drinking, dancing, laughing and chatting with an endless amount of former classmates. They had been there for hours, having a wonderful time before the music slowly faded away and Kristy and Mary Anne recognized the now familiar voice of Cokie Mason booming from the speakers, "Welcome everyone, to the Stoneybrook High School 10 year reunion!"


	11. Chapter 11

Cheers erupted from the entire crowd as everyone began to get up from their seats and walk towards the stage. Cokie said, "For those of you who dont know or remember me, my name is Cokie Mason. I was your homecoming queen, head cheerleader, head of the dance committee..and most importantly, our reunion coordinator!" followed by more cheering. After that died down, she continued and said "and I just want to thank you all so much for coming AND for purchasing your reunion tickets. The profits from those, along with a few generous donations from several of our classmates have made this reunion possible. So thanks again! Now, I'm not going to be up here for too long but I just wanted to do a few things and give out a few fun awards before you guys get back to dancing." First, I'd like to pay tribute to our classmate, Pete Black. For those of you who don't know, Pete passed away 4 years ago in a motorcycle accident here in Stoneybrook," which was met with some shocked gasps from the crowd. While Kristy and Mary Anne knew about Pete's accident, Dawn, Stacey and Claudia looked completely shocked as Stacey turned to Claudia with a sad face but didn't say anything. "Can we please raise our glasses and make a toast to a friend and a wonderful guy. To Pete!"

Almost in unison, the entire crowd chanted, "TO PETE!"

Changing to a more upbeat tone, Cokie said "Ok, now it's time for the awards!"

The girls stood through the ceremony, cheering on people they knew and didn't know as they walked up the stage to accept a small framed award for various reasons. Most successful was one of them. Most predictable job was another, which went to Alan Gray. Robert Brewster won for least changed and the award for furthest traveled went to Anna Stevenson. Cokie then announced that she had a double award. One for most changed and one for least traveled.

"Kristy Thomas!" blared through the loudspeakers.

Kristy felt a little confused and her cheeks flushed a bit as she walked up the stairs to accept her awards. Least traveled, yeah that made sense but most changed? Kristy assumed it must have been because she was dressed more glamorous than usual and had grown into a much more feminine adult. Cokie said "Congratulations Kristy" before turning to the crowd and said "and since I already have this lady up here, I just wanted to ask all of you, who here remembers The Baby-Sitters Club?"

Cokie's question was greeted with a small amount of clapping and cheering and Kristy swore she heard someone say "Oh yeah. I remember them."

" Well.." said Cokie "Kristy here was the president of that club and all of the other members are here with us tonight as well! I'd like everyone to give them a big round of applause!" The crowd didn't disappoint as louder cheering and clapping ensued.

Cokie yelled "Get up here, ladies! "Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill and again our two time award winner tonight, Kristy Thomas everybody!" The whole room cheered for all of them as they walked up to the stage and gave a wave to the crowd. "Ok, folks. That concludes the ceremony. Everyone have a great night and enjoy your party!" One last round of cheers filled the ballroom as the music started up again. One by one, all of the girls thanked Cokie. Kristy, still not friendly enough with her to hug her, instead just whispered in her ear "this has been a wonderful party. You did an amazing job!" Cokie smiled back and mouthed "Thank You" over the loud music.

The party raged for a few more hours, with everyone having a blast, dancing and getting drunk but sadly, all good things must come to an end and the party wound down around midnight. By that time all the ladies were pretty tired, Kristy, Claudia and Mary Anne all feeling pretty tipsy so all of the girls mutually agreed to call it a night and walked out of the party, saying goodbye to many people along the way. Before going their separate ways for the evening, Kristy had a quick conversation with the ladies about something she wanted to do with them on their last day in town on Monday. Once the plans were made, Kristy arranged for the uber to pick her, Mary Anne and Claudia up, Dawn and Stacey dropping off her car and then Mary Anne & Dawn heading back to the other side of town with their husbands.

Once back at Kristy's, Claudia and Stacey immediately changed clothes and went to sleep. Kristy was tired too but decided to grab a glass of water to try to hydrate herself after the night of drinking and dancing before retreating to her bedroom to change into her pajamas and sleep it off. After that, as she laid in her bed and closed her eyes, the events of everything from a few hours ago, to the weeks leading up to it swam around in her fuzzy head. The invitiation, the excitement, dress shopping, the confrontation and reconciliation with Claudia and even earlier that day at the salon. The night she had been waiting for had finally come and gone but it was better than she could have imagined. She couldn't believe Stacey and Claudia were in the room next door and that she would be able to see them all one more time before they left. As she began to fall asleep, she had one more thought. "Tonight was nothing more than..perfect."


	12. Chapter 12

Monday afternoon had finally arrived. Dawn and Stacey would be flying home later that evening and Claudia was leaving first thing Tuesday morning, but not before one last get together. Claudia and Kristy were sitting and chatting at the kitchen table in the house on Bradford Court, where John and Rioko Kishi still lived. Mrs. Kishi walked into the kitchen to bring a nice cold glass of water for the both of them.

"Thanks, Mom" said Claudia as her mother handed her a glass.

"Yes. Thanks, Mrs. Kishi" said Kristy after she received hers.

"You're welcome, Kristy" she said as she gave Kristy a little side hug right where she was sitting, then walked past Claudia and gave her a kiss on the top of her head before she left the room.

"Aww, that's so sweet" said Kristy. "She must be so happy you're home."

"Oh, definitely" replied Claudia. "She doesn't want me to leave."

"Too bad Janine is out of town" Kristy said.

Claudia shrugged and said "she really wouldn't be doing me any favors. She didn't even visit me once when I was sick. She barely called either. I am pretty indifferent towards my sister nowadays."

"Sorry, Claud." Kristy said sadly.

"It's alright" replied Claudia. "I got over THAT a long time ago." Claudia then changed the subject and said "so anyways..I'd rather talk about that epic party. How fun was that?"

"Me too" said Kristy. "I got a bit too drunk but at least I didn't do anything stupid."

"Like what?" Claudia asked sarcastically. "Break your friend's foot?" and smirked.

Kristy laughed but didn't respond to that, instead saying "hey, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you and Stacey about Pete. It's just that we weren't really talking and-"

"Don't even worry about that, Kris" interrupted Claudia. "It's my fault for not keeping in touch."

"So what was your favorite part of the evening? Krisky asked.

"Well, the both of us getting hit on by gross Alan Gray was definitely up there," said Claudia.

Kristy laughed and said, "Right?"

Claudia continued, "I gotta say though, Cokie calling us up on stage was pretty damn awesome. I wonder why she did that?" she asked.

Kristy replied "I think she's just trying to redeem herself for torturing us all those years. Probably trying to redeem herself in every way, it seems. Her husband went to jail, you know."

"Really? For what?" asked Claudia.

"Tax evasion. He was a doctor and I think he was doing some kind of insurance fraud too." said Kristy.

"Wow. That sucks." said Claudia.

"I'll say" replied Kristy. "She really had this perfect Park Avenue life and was suddenly left a penniless single mom. I never really thought about it until Mary Anne mentioned that a situation like that would humble anyone and obviously she's right. Honestly, I'm sure I'll be seeing more of her."

"How about Stacey and Robert's awkward reunion?" asked Claudia.

"Oh lordy. I swear, it kinda seemed like he was still in love with her, huh?" asked Kristy.

"Shoot..probably." said Claudia. "Too bad he screwed that one up. Stacey would never forgive him in a million years and thank goodness for that. Now she gets to marry the man of her dreams."

"Very true" said Kristy. "So what's the plan for you this evening?"

"Well, I'm going to see Peaches, Russ and Lynne for dinner before I leave but that's pretty much it" answered Claudia, who then said excitedly, "Oh yeah! I have a gift for you!"

"A gift?" asked Kristy. "You dont need to get me anything" but Claudia was already gone before Kristy could finish. Claudia returned from her living room in about 15 seconds holding a plain paper shopping bag and said "I really didn't feel the need to wrap it, so here you go" she said as she handed the bag to Kristy. She opened the bag, peered at the contents inside and squealed, "Claudia! Oh my gosh! This is awesome! Where did you find this stuff?" she asked.

"At the party supply store" said Claudia.

"This is too cool. Thank you SO much!" said Kristy.

"Of course. You deserve it" said Claudia. "I'm just so glad I came here and I'm so glad I got to see you."

"Me too, Claud. You know, for the past few years, I've had an inkling that you had a problem with me but I never understood. After you said you didn't want me to visit you when you were sick and then the way you ignored me at Dawn's wedding, I knew something was up but I just pushed it to the back of my mind so I can get on with my life. I wouldn't have guessed in a million years why though." said Kristy.

Claudia replied " I am so sorry, Kristy. I'm sorry I used you as my scapegoat. I just didn't know how else to cope. My therapist helped me realized that I was actually mad at myself because my own body betrayed me."

"That makes perfect sense. I'm just glad we got past it, you're here, you're healthy and we're..friends" Kristy said with a smile.

"Me too." said Claudia. "Hey, the girls will be here soon. Come upstairs with me!"

Kristy and Claudia grabbed the bag of snacks. Aling with a veggie and fruit tray for Stacey and Dawn and walked upstairs to Claudia's old bedroom. It didn't look the same at all, as all of Claudia's artwork was gone and the room now had two twin beds, each against one wall, with a small nightstand in between them. A dresser was now where Claudia's old desk used to be and the walls were now painted a bland white color.

"Wow" said Kristy. "This bedroom looks like it died."

"Ugh, tell me about it" said Claudia. "My mom has no decorating sense at all. Don't worry, though. My apartment is just as colorful as this room used to be." Claudia then added "and I have one more surprise for you."

"Come on. You've already done too much" said Kristy.

"You'll love this one. Trust me" said Claudia as she walked to the closet, opened the door and pulled out something Kristy hadn't seen in years. "Ahhh!" shrieked Kristy as she put her hands to her mouth. "You got me a . directors chair too?!"

"Oh no" said Claudia. This is the orginal, baby!"

"Seriously?" asked Kristy.

"Mmm hmm" replied Claudia. "My parents saved it. It was up in the rafters in garage wrapped in plastic."

"This is awesome, Claud!" said Kristy. Just then, the doorbell rang.

"They're here!" said Claudia. "I'll go get it. Go ahead and set the room up. I'm sure my parents will want to talk to the girls for a bit."

Kristy got to work, folding out the directors chair, putting out the snacks and few more things. It had been about 20 minutes when Stacey, Mary Anne and Dawn entered the room and all had the same look of shock on their faces when seeing the plain looking room, Dawn saying, "Oh my gosh..what happened in HERE?!"

Stacey joked "Did..Janine move back in here or something?

"Haha, no." . "My mom just can't decorate for crap" said Claudia, shaking her head.

"I dunno" said Mary Anne. "I kind of like it."

Claudia immediately gave her the stink eye, prompting Mary Anne to put her hands up and say, "Oh, I'm kidding! I actually hate it."

"GOOD" said Claudia.

Mary Anne added " Not all librarians are boring, OKAY?"

"Yes, you should see Mary Anne's house" chimed in Dawn. "It has a lot of color!"

Claudia then said "Alright, ladies. Have a seat. There are two beds to choose from now."

Stacey parked herself on one bed and Dawn and Mary Anne sat together on the other. ClaudIa then grabed the bags of snacks that were on the dresser and announced "I have cheese balls, ring dings and gummy bears" then looking at Dawn and Stacey and saying "and for you gals, some fruit, veggies and dip and crackers." Dawn made a sour face and said "Um, I'm pregnant. Give me a ring ding, dangit!" Claudia laughed and tossed Dawn the plastic wrapped chocolate treat.

Stacey said, "what are we, in middle school?! My mom isn't here making sure I don't eat sweets. Gimme one!" Claudia laughed again and said, "you got it!" and handed a treat to Stacey too.

After everyone grabbed their snacks and got more settled, Kristy grabbed the bag that Claudia gave her downstairs and sat in her beloved director's chair before pulling out the contents, which was a brand new green visor and a novelty gavel.

"Kristy!" said Mary Anne excitedly. "That's so awesome!"

"Absolutely!" said Dawn, adding "maybe not as..um, dibble as our reunion dresses, but close to" as she laughed.

Stacey gave Claudia a small nudge on the shoulder and whispered "Good job."

Kristy then cleared her throat and paused, looking around the room at her oldest friends, one by one. Mary Anne Spier, her best friend through thick and thin. Nothing could ever break their bond and Kristy was so happy that Mary Anne never moved away and took her advice, ending up with a wonderful husband. She couldn't have been more proud that she is her best friend.

Then she looked at Dawn. While not as close as she is with Mary Anne, as long as Dawn was Mary Anne's sister, she would have a place in Kristy's heart too and she was so happy that Dawn has done so well for herself and is now starting a family of her own.

Her eyes drifted to the other side of the room to Claudia and Stacey feeling so greatful that the both of them are still here, happy, healthy and alive since both of them have been through so much over the years, both physically and emotionally. Stacey is moving on to a wonderful new chapter in her life and Claudia is well on her road to recovery, this time on an emotional level and Kristy hoped they would be able to spend more time together in the future.

As all of them turned their attention to her, she couldn't believe her eyes that this group was all grown up. While Kristy was sad it was all coming to an end and all of her friends would be gone in the next few hours, she was very hopeful. Who knows what the future would hold for all of them and how long it would be before they were all together again. Maybe this would be the last time, or perhaps the first time of many but no matter what, that very moment with all the Baby-Sitters Club together in their old meeting place was one that Kristy knew she'd never forget.

She then said "Ok. I hereby.." but couldn't even get any more words out before tears sprang into her eyes and began falling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry. Give me me a sec," trying to calm herself down but creating a chain reaction of tears from everyone in the room.

A choked up Mary Anne said "It's ok, Kris."

"Take your time, Kristy" said Dawn.

"It's ok. I'm ok" said Kristy, who then took a deep breath, let it out and tried again saying "I hereby call this..FINAL meeting of The Babysitter's Club to order!" and her gavel went..."THWAK!"


	13. Chapter 13

THE END

Thank you so much for reading my very first fanfiction story! I've never written before but I had a lot of fun coming up with this story and thanks to everyone for waiting patiently for each chapter! I'd appreciate any feedback and ideas for whose story you would like me to continue on with next and anything you'd like to see happen to the members of the adult BSC, as I'm going to try to do a few spinoff stories as well. Please stay tuned for the first, entitled:

"STACEY'S WEDDING"


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